Category: decision-making
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How To Get People To Do Stuff: #1 — Use Nouns Instead Of Verbs
This blog post is the first of a new series called “How To Get People To Do Stuff”. It features nuggets from the book I am writing by the same name due out in March of 2013. I’m also starting a new format of doing video blogs. So first is the video, and then below…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #67 — Anecdotes Persuade More Than Data
Let’s say you have to make a presentation to several department heads at work about your latest conversations with your customers. You interviewed 25 customers and surveyed another 100, and have lots of important data to share. Your first thought might be to present a summary of the data in a numerical/statistical/data driven format, for…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #64 — Groups Are Swayed By A Dominant Personality
In the last blog post I talked about how groups end up making faulty decisions. How many times have you been part of a group discussion and decision-making process and there is one person who is dominating the conversation and the decision. Just because decisions are made in a group setting doesn’t mean that the…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #63 — Group Decision-Making Is Faulty
If your work life is anything like mine, your day is filled with groups meeting by phone or in person and making decisions. Unfortunately research shows that group decision-making has some serious flaws. The Danger of Group-Think — Andreas Mojzisch and Stefan Schulz-Hardt (2010) presented people with information on prospective job candidates. People who received…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #47 — People Value A Product More Highly If It Is Physically In Front Of Them
You go online to re-order a box of your favorite pens. Will you value the product more if the product page has a picture of the pens versus just a text description? Would you think the pens are worth more if you were in the office store and the pen was right in front of…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #45 — You Choose (And Vote For) The First One On The List
It’s almost election time here in the USA, and there are many hotly contested elections at local, state, and national levels. Who will you vote for? According to the research, you are likely to vote for the first person that appears on the ballot! The order effect — In my book, Neuro Web Design: What…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #44 — When Uncertain, People Look To Others to Decide What To Do
You are browsing a website to decide what to boots to buy. You see a pair that looks good and then you scroll down to see the ratings. Many people have rated the boots highly, but a few say the boots are cheaply made and uncomfortable. What will you do? Will you buy the boots or…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #42 — We'll spend more money if you don't mention money
You are out for a Sunday bike ride on your favorite biking path, and you come across a pair of kids selling lemonade. Do you stop and buy some lemonade? Do you like the lemonade? Does your buying or liking the lemonade have anything to do with the wording on the sign next to the…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #40 — "You're Easily Influenced, but I'm not"
I have been doing a lot of public speaking about my book and the ideas of persuasion. Early in my talks I often discuss John Bargh’s research on how much we are influenced by factors that we are not aware of. Bargh had people unscramble sets of words to make sentences, for example, he would…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #37 — People Assume It's You, Not The Situation
A man is walking down a busy city street on his way to an appointment, and he sees what looks like a college student drop a folder of papers. The papers scatter on the ground and the man glances over but keeps on walking. What do you think? Why didn’t the man stop to help…
