“Sandy’s? Oh no! Let’s pick up another restaurant please. Sandy’s are trash. Why? I was there once and they served me bad chicken.”
Did those words come from your mouth? Keep reading.
This article is inspired by The Choice Factory. A book written by Richard Shotton about cognitive biases in marketing and everyday life. Read another article from this series.
Imagine...
Brand new day. Brand new job. Your first day. You are beyond excited. You washed twice and shaved three times. Everywhere.
You took your morning routine seriously this time. You went for the best shirt and new shoes you bought for the occasion. So pretty. Real leather. Even the soles are completely smooth. That’s a sign of high quality for sure.
Finally, you’re entering the new offices. Everybody wants to meet you. A little circle is created around you. You feel on top of the world. Everybody wants a piece of you. They simply dig your traveling anecdotes. Is that even possible? You’re excited. You’re putting more and more energy into your performance. Hands are waving in the air. Legs are dancing.
And then. Just as you perform the snotty waiter from Uganda. It happened. Perfectly smooth soles did not support you enough on the wooden floor. You slipped. And what is worse. Everybody laughs more now than they did when you said that dirty joke about spanish cuisine.
A year has passed since the accident. Your boss comes to the office. She has a bag of chips she’s desperately trying to open. You offer to help. She hesitates. Why?
She’s afraid you’ll eat them all.
She won't entrust her chips with the clumsy boy.
She thinks you’re flirting with her.
Guess the correct answer now. I will give you some time before I reveal the results. And in the meantime? Let’s read some more.
The first one takes it all
In 1946 Solomon Asch introduced the same person to two groups of people.
First group heard that the person is:
Smart | hardworking | impulsive | critical | stubborn | envious.
Second group got the echo that the person is:
Envious | stubborn | critical | impulsive | hardworking | Smart.
Exactly. They got the same characteristics, but in opposite order. Did it influence their judgment? YES!
For example, 52% of people from the first group thought that the person might be generous. However, only 21% of people from the second group shared their opinion.
Richard Shotton took his experiment and done it with something more innocent than a human being. He created a bottle of Vodka.
His fake brand was called Black Sheep Vodka. Nobody ever tasted it, because it does not exist. But that did not stop people from posing a judgment.
Shotton once again divided people into two groups. First group heard that the Vodka is:
Award winning | fresh | nice | acidulated | not strong enough.
Second group of people got the echo that the Vodka is:
Not strong enough | acidulated | nice | fresh | award winning.
The results? The first group rated our Vodka better by 11% compared to the second group.
Be first or insignificant
I guess you already know what is happening here. We tend to judge people, products or situations based on the first piece of information we get.
It might be because of our limited cognitive capacity. We take in the first piece of information and then we’re too exhausted for the next course.
Asch preferred another explanation. He believed that first pieces of information forms a frame by which we judge the following picture. So when the first fact is that the Vodka is “Not strong enough”, we’re hardly impressed that it won some awards. “Maybe it did, but some pretty lousy awards,” you snort.
And it works the other way around too. Imagine you first hear about the awards
and then about the complaints. “Not strong enough? It’s award winning stuff for god’s sake. Maybe it's not strong enough for those oldschool winos who prefer their Screwdriver drinks mixed with real metal,“ you roll your eyes.
The power of context is amazing. Read more about it in one of my previous articles.
What does it mean for you? The first impression matters. You can slip on the floor hundreds of times and nobody will say a word. Do it the first day of work and they won’t ever shut up about it…. But don’t be nervous!
Correct answer: B. She won't entrust her chips with the clumsy boy.
Source: Richard Shotton | The Choice Factory