Blog

6 cognitive biases that influence online shopping

Google's consumer insights team wanted to "understand how consumers make decisions in an online environment of abundant choice and limitless information."

They found that "people deal with scale and complexity by using cognitive biases encoded deep in their psychology."

As consumers cycle through exploration and evaluation phases of their decision, they rely on the following six cognitive biases:

1. Category heuristics -...

I’ve found myself talking a lot about in-group bias recently.

It's our tendency to favour our group over others. 
 
What’s our group? It could be our family, footy team, hair colour, ethnicity, choice of car, nationality, or even, as I have witnessed during Melbourne’s second lockdown, suburb.
 
We naturally sift and sort people into categories so we can navigate the world, separating “us” and “them” as we go. From an evolutionary...

Does the world really need another behavioural framework? 

I wrestled with this as I developed and shared my model for behaviour change.

How is it different? Why should people bother? 

And the thought came screaming back as I presented at Nudgestock a few weeks ago. A lot of concepts and approaches were thrown around over 14 hours. It was overwhelming. 

So here's what I thought I'd do.

First, sketch a landscape of the more commonly known behavioural...

“When you do testing to that extent, you are going to find more people, you will find more cases. So I said slow the testing down.”

US President Donald Trump’s statement about slowing COVID-19 testing was so appalling that it rightfully made headlines around the world.

For a world leader to so flagrantly place vanity above the health of his citizens was truly gobsmacking.

But there’s a second reason it was so awful.

Inadvertently or by design, Trump made blatant what...

I was excited to present at the world's biggest and best festival of behavioural science, created by Ogilvy.

It kicked off in Sydney and travelled around the globe, finishing in New York 14 hours later.

Here's my 'tight ten' in which I explain my behaviour change model.

What now?

• Read a quick overview of my Behaviour Change Model here.
• Clarify your very own behavioural challenge with my free Behavioural Analysis tool.
• Get behavioural tips and ideas by subscribing...

Much of the power of Hannah Gadsby’s hit show “Nanette” was her deconstruction of comedic performance, lifting the veil and stepping us through the set-up, tension and release.

The comedian’s role, Gadsby shared, is to deliberately create tension so they can then relieve us of it.

That’s your role too, by the way, if you are interested in gaining traction for your ideas or winning new business. Whether you are creating a PowerPoint presentation, writing a tender...

For some, moderation works. My mother, for example, can leave food on her plate and limit herself to two squares of chocolate a night.

For others, elimination is better. I am prone to eating everything on my plate and gobbling two ROWS of chocolate. I am therefore better to serve smaller meals on smaller plates, eliminating the decision whether and how much to leave. Eliminating chocolate from the house also works best for me.

Whether you are wired to moderate or eliminate will have a large...

My Top 5 TED talks on behaviour change, including key take outs.

After returning from a 16-day hike of the Larapinta trail in 2017, I swore I would never take a hot shower for granted again.

Of course I did, because taking things for granted is our default.

We take for granted people, possessions, freedom (if we have it) and that the sun will rise tomorrow. Three weeks ago, I treasured each square of toilet paper. Now I barely think about it.

When we stop, though, we find ourselves in awe of sunrise. Of our freedom. Of our loved ones.

But it’s...

You might be feeling more tired than usual at the moment.

Understandable if you are working harder than ever, but what if you aren’t?

Some of us have long expanses of unscheduled time on our hands. No more travel. No more commuting. No more gyms, dinner parties or sporting events.

Why so tired, then?

The other reason you are tired

Partly this may be due to stress and anxiety. Your body is working overtime to remained composed, with your parasympathetic nervous system trying to calm the...