The peak-end effect is when our minds use the peaks and ends of experiences to build a memory. Let’s see how it works with a story from Disneyland. And we’ll finish with other examples (a hotel chain and KFC) to understand how to use it in business. Joe was in Paris with his girlfriend. After…
Category: Marketing Psychology
The Priming Effect: How Expectations Become Reality
In 1999, a group of Asian-American women students stepped into a room for a math test. But before the test, they had to fill out a form. The first group had questions on gender-related issues. Like what’s their gender, opinions about co-ed dorms, etc. The second group’s questions were about ethnicity. Like what their ethnicity…
Bias For Action: Why Coca-Cola’s “New Coke” Failed (And How To Avoid It)
Bias for action is a mental error that causes us to act even when inaction is the best decision. First, let’s see how Coca-Cola executives made that mistake. And then how to avoid it to make better decisions. In the 80s, Pepsi started its famous ad campaign on TV. The Pepsi Challenge. Pepsi made consumers…
The Law Of Reciprocity: Vito Corleone’s Favorite Tool to Build Influence
In 1985, Ethiopia was in a humanitarian crisis. Civil war, poverty, famine… Ethiopians dealt with many calamities at the same time. The suffering was immense. As these disasters were ongoing, newspapers covered a story about a five thousand dollars aid between Mexico and Ethiopia. But one detail surprised everybody. The side that sent the aid…
Salience Bias: How to Become Unforgettable
In 2011, Patagonia made an unusual advertising campaign. They told people the opposite of what a clothing brand wants customers to do. “Don’t buy this jacket.” And you know the best part? They published it on Black Friday. So imagine this. You open a newspaper that day and see pages of ads from different brands.…
Commitment Bias: How To Avoid and Benefit From It
Why is ending a long relationship so hard?Even if you know it’s not good for you anymore, it’s still difficult to end it.The answer is commitment.Your friends know your partner, you have photos on Instagram together and you have shared how happy you were.So the imaginary stakes of a breakup are high.Because your mind tries to be consistent with your…
Hindsight Bias Meaning, Examples, and How to Avoid It
Hindsight bias is a fallacy where people feel they knew how things would turn out after the events occurred. Take yourself back to December 2019. A new decade is about to start. Who was expecting a pandemic that’d keep us under lockdown and change how we live for years? Who was expecting a war in…
Concorde Fallacy: How to Avoid Making Decisions Like A Losing Gambler
The Concorde fallacy is a mental bias where people continue spending resources (money, time, or effort) on failing projects because of a prior commitment. Let’s see the story of Concorde and how a fallacy was named after it. Concorde was an impressive aircraft. It had an elegant design, with a maximum speed over twice the…