Category: persuasion
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Will We Trust Driverless Cars?
What will it take for humans to be willing to give up control of the wheel? In this HumanTech podcast episode we talk about how the interaction design of a driverless car affects whether or not we trust the car’s decisions. HumanTech is a podcast at the intersection of humans, brain science, and technology. Your…
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The Ethics Of Persuasion — A Conversation with Nathalie Nahai
For this HumanTech podcast episode, Nathalie Nahai from the UK joins us for a conversation about whether and when it is ethical to use persuasion techniques in our apps and our websites to get people to take certain actions. Listen to the podcast and also check out Nathalie’s book: Webs Of Influence. HumanTech is a podcast that…
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365 Ways To Persuade And Motivate: #15-24
For this post I’ve put 10 ways to persuade and motivate altogether in one post! 15. Talk first – Research shows that people like to follow a leader and that the person who talks first when a group gets together becomes the leader. 16. Give a gift – When someone gives you a gift you…
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365 Ways To Persuade And Motivate: #13–Talk to the unconscious
“We want them to type in their email and click on the “Join” button”, was the response from my client as I asked him what was the one action he wanted people to take on his landing page. Good. That was clear. But now the question was what else should be on the landing page…
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365 Ways To Persuade And Motivate: #12 – Give them a warm beverage
You have an important meeting with a client first thing tomorrow morning. The main contact, Jeremy, is unhappy with some of the deliverables on the last project. He has been a little cold and distant with you on the phone and through email recently. This is the first time he is coming in to the…
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365 Ways To Persuade And Motivate: #11 Identify The Operating Self-Story
Someone knocks on your door. You recognize him as a kid from your neighborhood. He’s selling popcorn as a fundraiser for a club he belongs to at school. The club is trying to go to the state convention. How do you react? It depends on the story, or persona, you have of yourself when it comes to topics…
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365 Ways to Persuade And Motivate: #8 Use The Right Reward
Since starting to write the last few blog posts on rewards I’ve had some questions on what is a reward. So I thought I’d take this blog to write about what makes a reward a reward and how to pick the “right” one. When B.F. Skinner researched rewards he didn’t call them rewards. He called…
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365 Ways To Persuade And Motivate: #7 Give Rewards Unpredictably To Sustain A Behavior
In the last blog post I wrote about using a continuous reinforcement schedule when you want to establish a new behavior. And I hinted that you should change that schedule after the behavior is established. One of the reward “schedules” that BF Skinner researched is called a variable ratio schedule. It’s called “variable” because you…
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365 Ways To Persuade And Motivate: #6 Reward Every Time To Establish A New Behavior
Rewards are one of the most common ways that people think of to get other people to do stuff. In the talks that I give on the topic I tell people that rewards are actually one of the least effective ways to get people to do stuff! Rewards are one of the seven ways I…
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365 Ways To Persuade And Motivate: #4 Give People Autonomy
In the previous blog post in this series I wrote that one of the best ways to motivate people is to stimulate a desire for mastery – and that breaking things into small pieces and showing progress through the pieces encourages the desire for mastery. Another tip for stimulating the desire for mastery is to…
