Since the research shows that if it takes a long time to make a decision then people might not make the decision at all, is it possible to change the perception of certainty or the elapsed time to get people out of this loop and encourage a decision? The answer is yes, and here’s how to do it.
Since the decision network is looking at two things, elapsed time and amount of evidence, to decide about certainty, you can speed things up if you encourage the impression that a lot of evidence has accumulated.
Let’s say Jim is trying to decide what car to buy. Jim is coming to the car website and looking at some information about particular car models. What could you do to make him feel that he has accumulated a lot of evidence? You could show him a lot of information— you could force him to view a series of pages about the cars. Then he could see that he has accumulated a lot of evidence. But that might take a lot of time, and if too much time elapses, then the decision network will lose certainty.
Little Chunks And Lots Of Feedback
Instead of providing a lot of information, the better tactic is to break the information into small chunks. Show the gas mileage as one independent chunk. Show the safety rating as one independent chunk. A lot of small chunks of information will give the decision network the impression that it has accumulated substantial evidence. Next, you can show the actual accumulation of those facts. Give feedback on the screen of all the information that has been accessed. You could display a running list of all the attributes and/or topics Jim has looked at, or all the categories of information he has investigated.
Jim would now be looking at a screen that shows that he has already looked at car mileage, safety features, options, and the loan calculator. You don’t have to show the data itself, just a checklist of the types of information he has accumulated.
The decision network will see the summary of all the information and perceive that a lot of evidence has been accumulated in a short amount of time. Remember, the amount of time that has elapsed is critical. If all that evidence has accumulated quickly, then the network in the brain will think that: a) the decision must not be that difficult, and b) plenty of evidence is there for certainty. This in turn will cause a feeling of certainty, and it’s that feeling of certainty that will trigger the actual decision to act.
Get People To Take A Physical Action
It’s not just one part of the brain that decides. There are portions of the brain that process information (for example, visual information or auditory information) and any of these areas can trigger the “I’m certain” idea, which in turn will trigger the decision to act. That decision to act will depend on what the action is, for example, reaching for something or clicking the mouse.
The motor (movement) parts of the brain are more involved in decision-making than many people realize. You can increase the chance of a “go” trigger if you get people to take a physical action. They may not be ready yet for the actual “go” trigger, but if you can get them to take a series of smaller actions (click here to see the safety ratings, click here to choose the vehicle color), you increase the chance that they will more quickly take the final, larger “go” action.
Takeaways
- You can encourage the decision trigger to fire by organizing information into small chunks.
- Provide visual feedback of evidence as it accumulates—for example, if someone is researching at a website, you can list all the pages, screens, or datapoints that have been considered during a session. This creates a feeling that evidence has accumulated quickly.
- Design the flow of tasks and screens so that your audience takes a series of small physical actions. The faster you get people to physically respond, the faster they reach the “go” trigger moment for the final decision.
Leave a Reply