“I think this café doesn't serve good donuts. I prefer the Loveduds around the corner. Oh you don’t know them? The ones with the fancy leather couches?”
– Are you this stupid? Continue reading please.
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...
You are in between jobs. And you’re feeling good. You’re in your thriving thirties. You’re a senior (at work i mean!) A pro. Master. You don’t have to jump after the first offer. You can choose now.
Today you had two meetings. First was held in a small office with no windows. You met a very nice lady. She answered every question you had. You two talked for an hour. About you, your experience, the job. Your job title would be Brand Manager.
Second interview was in one of the most beautiful buildings in town. You sat in a fancy leather chair. People across the table asked you only a few questions. They preferred talking about the company while you drank the best coffee in your life. Your job title would be Execute Local Brand Managing Division Director.
Which job did you pick?
A. Neither. You’re too pretty for your shirt. You'll become a striper.
B. First job.
C. Second job.
Pretty simple test, huh? Wait till the end to find out if you guessed correctly.
Names are important for your taste buds
Our surrounding control our mind more than we want to admit. More than half of our judgement comes from our great expectations. The nicer things happens around us the better things we expect to come. Let me show you.
In 2005 professor of Behavioral and Nutritional Science at Cornell University Brian Wansink went to the student cafeteria. He had renamed several meals for 6 weeks.
Red Beans with Rice became Cajun Red Beans with Rice.
Sea Water Fish Fillet became Juicy Italian Sea Water Fillet.
Chocolate Pudding became Smooth Chocolate Pudding.
He wanted to know whether people would like the meal better now. As you can see – his edit had almost nothing to do with the character of the food. Everybody must have known that he was sweet talking to them. It still worked though.
More expressively described meals students rated better tasting by 7% and more tempting by 13%.
You’ve been served
In 2006 Wansink went to the cafeteria again and served 175 brownies. He offered them to students in three different ways:
on a white porcelain
on a paper plate
on a napkin
Then he asked the students how much would they be willing to pay for a brownie.
And the results? Students who got brownies on a porcelain plate would pay 73 cents more than those who got their free dessert on a napkin. Remember, context is everywhere and presentation counts.
Fear the color of prejudice
We think fancier sounding meals tastes better. Are we really this stupid? Yes. We are. And that's not all.
These days we want everything to be eco-friendly. But at the same time we think that those kinds of products are less effective. ”It won’t be the same without the killer chemicals,“ you mutter.
Richard Shotton let two groups of customers test washing machine capsules. First group thought they had an eco-friendly product in their hands and the second one the “regular one”. (I tell you a secret. Both groups had the same capsule.)
After a test run Shotton asked everybody a series of questions. Results were clear. Customers rated eco-friendly capsules as worse in every category. Effectiveness, likeability, likelihood of recommendation. By whole 18% less people would buy the green capsules for their household. Well, what is “friendly” to the environment must be “friendly” to the stains as well, right?
Same lack of logic people showed during painkiller pills testing. Anton de Craen, clinical epidemiologist, ran a revision of 12 studies. He came to the following purely rational conclusion: People think that the red pills are more effective against the pain compared to the blue ones. (I guess Matrix was right then.)
“Why” you ask? It's because red evokes power and strength, while blue has more soothing cowardly undertones.
We will do almost about anything to rationalize our choices. But most often we jump into conclusion based on silly associations which has nothing to do with logic.
Let's get back to the story from the begging. The truth is, that most people would be so entirely absorbed by great coffe and fancy job titles. They would overlook the fact that nobody paid much attention to them on the sencond interview. In another words, we would go for superficial trinkets instead of the possibility of a deep, meaningful connection.
You can fight that of course. For example. Next time you'll be on the hunt for painkillers, don't look at the pills or their influence on the environment for that matter.
And don't get swiped off your feet by any fancy latin names. Rather get on Google and search for pills which are best rated by both, specialist and other customers.
Correct answer: C: Second job
Source: Richard Shotton | The Choice Factory
Read more: Your first time matters