A new resource by ribot to help you make better products. We distill the latest behavioural economics & consumer psychology research down into helpful little brain gems.
How consumers’ warped sense of entitlement affects your promotional & loyalty strategy
Reczek, Haws, & Summers (2014) Lucky Loyalty: The Effect of Consumer Effort on Predictions of Randomly Determined Marketing Outcomes, Journal of Consumer Research
A look at the rise of ‘incremental games’ and how such experiences will make future loyalty programs much more engaging…
This important research tells us why giving customers money can actually hurt your brand…
Liu, Lamberton, & Haws (2015) Should Firms Use Small Financial Benefits to Express Appreciation to Consumers? Understanding and Avoiding Trivialization Effects, Journal of Marketing
Why when companies become morally-engaged and give back to society, their products gain a ‘noble edge’ over less-giving, self-serving competitors…
Chernev, Alexander and Sean Blair (2015), “Doing Well by Doing Good: The Benevolent Halo of Social Goodwill” Journal of Consumer Research
Why not knowing what you’ll get as a reward can nudge you more successfully towards a goal
Fisbach A, Hsee C. “The Motivating-Uncertainty Effect: Uncertainty Increases Resource Investment in the Process of Reward Pursuit.” Journal of Consumer Research, 2015.
Yet another bias that proves that our probability judgements are often inaccurate. Find out how you can use it to motivate behaviour change…
Isaac & Brough (2014) Judging a Part by the Size of Its Whole: The Category Size Bias in Probability Judgments. Journal of Consumer Research.
Find out why we eat more chocolate when it’s broken into pieces, than when it’s given to us whole.
Sevilla & Kahn (2014) The Completeness Heuristic: Product Shape Completeness Influences Size Perceptions, Preference, and Consumption. Journal of Marketing Research.
Why you think you’ll be safer, smarter and more successful than you’ll actually end up being…
Sharot (2011), The Optimism Bias. Current Biology.
Want to be fitter, healthier or more successful? This amazing gem shows you how restrictive pleasure-combining will get you there…
Milkman, Minson & Volpp (2013) Holding the Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym: An Evaluation of Temptation Bundling. Management Science
Find out how the negative effects of bundled purchases can be reduced with this fascinating pricing bias…
Soman & Gourville (2001) Transaction decoupling: how price bundling affects the decision to consume. Journal of Marketing Research.
Why blandishing customers with the anomalous may be fatuous & nocuous to your brand…
Song & Schwarz (2007) If It’s Difficult to Pronounce, It Must Be Risky. Psychological Science
Discover how the simple act of closing a door or turning a lid can make you more satisfied with your final product choice…
Gu, Botti & Faro (2013) Turning the page: the impact of choice closure on satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research.
Why the shift to the digital wallet will make you spend more…
Soman (2003) The Effect of Payment Transparency on Consumption: Quasi-Experiments from the Field. Marketing Letters
New research shows us how nostalgia can influence our buying behaviour by weakening the desire to hold onto our money…
Lasaleta, Sedikides & Vohs (2014) Nostalgia weakens the desire for money. Journal of Consumer Research.
Find out why the more time or money we invest, the more irrational we become…
Arkes, Hal R., and Catherine Blumer, “The psychology of sunk cost”, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 35, No. 5, December 1985, 124-140.
This gem explains why when we can’t make a choice, we automatically copy others (only when they’re not looking)…
Eun Huh, Vosgerau & Morewedge (2014) Social Defaults: Observed Choices Become Choice Defaults. Journal of Consumer Research.
This gem unearths why New Year resolutions are so popular…
Dai, Milkman & Riis (2013) The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks That Motivate Aspirational Behaviour. The Wharton School Research Paper No.51
Find out how your product rating will be affected if it eats up your consumer’s remaining budget…
Soster, Gershoff & Bearden (2014) The Bottom Dollar Effect: The Influence of Spending to Zero on Pain of Payment and Satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research
Discover how horizontal & vertical product placement can affect your customer’s decision-making, both in-store and on your website…
Rodway, Schepman & Lambert (2012). Preferring the One in the Middle: Further Evidence for the Centre‐stage Effect.
New research shows us how price framing can be used to increase product satisfaction and reduce feelings of regret after purchase.
Lee & Zhao (2014) The Effect of Price on Preference Consistency Over Time. Journal of Consumer Research.
Find out how to encourage certain behaviours through the use of seemingly-unrelated words with this fascinating new bias…
Davis & Herr (2014) From Bye to Buy: Homophones as a Phonological Route to Priming
Consumers’ built-in desire to feel great about their poor decisions offers you some unique marketing opportunities…
Cohen & Goldberg (1970). The Dissonance Model in Post-Decision Product Evaluation. Journal of Marketing Research.
In direct conflict with economic theory, find out why reducing scarcity may actually increase your product’s value…
McFerran & Argo (2014) The Entourage Effect, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 40, No. 5
Consumers’ short-term desires and longer term wishes differ wildly. Find out what these differences are, and how best to cater for them…
Milkman, Rogers & Bazerman (2009). Ice cream soon and vegetables later: A study of online grocery purchases and order lead time.
Understand why we act irrationally to lists, and the knock-on implications for your marketing budget…
Isaac & Schindler (2014) The Top-Ten Effect: Consumers’ Subjective Categorization of Ranked Lists
Read why ‘perceived ownership’ is so powerful, and how you can use it to dramatically improve demand for your product…
Kahneman, Knetsch & Thaler (2009). Experimental Tests of the Endowment Effect and the Coase Theorem.
Our inherent desire to cut corners has massive implications for your product strategy. Read why here…
Neys, Rossi & Houd (2013) Bats, balls, and substitution sensitivity: cognitive misers are no happy fools. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
This fascinating study suggests that we shouldn’t always give consumers exactly what they want. Discover why here…
Leif & Meyvis (2009) Enhancing the Television-Viewing Experience Through Commercial Interruptions, Journal of Consumer Research
Find out how you can dramatically raise demand for your product by fostering creativity in the sales process…
Norton, Mochon & Ariely (2012) The IKEA effect: When labor leads to love. Journal of Consumer Psychology.
Find out how you can greatly control and affect decision-making using this powerful psychological technique…
Sugden, R; Zheng, J & Zizzo, D (2013) Not all anchors are created equal. Journal of Economic Psychology 39 (2013) 21-31
Find out why our short-termism and desire for immediate rewards trumps commonsensical thinking, and how you should change your product strategy as a result…
Hardman (2009). Judgment and decision making: psychological perspectives. Wiley-Blackwell.
Foregoing a very attractive opportunity decreases our willingness to go for subsequent opportunities.
van Putten, M et al. (2013) How consumers deal with missed discounts: Transaction decoupling, action orientation and inaction inertia
Creating a product strategy that promotes uniqueness is essential, but doing so in the right way is vital. Find out why…
Von Restorff, H. (1933) The effects of field formation in the trace field
Find out why the highs and lows of your product experience are so critical, and what you should change as a result…
Kahneman, D. (1999) Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology
This powerful technique is a sure-fire way to motivate and incentivise any behaviour you choose. Read all about it here…
Kivetz, Urminsky & Zheng (2006) The Goal-Gradient Hypothesis Resurrected
Find out why offering more variety may indeed harm both profits and the perception of your brand…
Iyengar, S; Lepper, M (2000) When Choice is Demotivating Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000, Vol. 79
You must have a strategy in place for when things go terribly wrong for your customer journey. Find out why here…
Nguyena & Claus (2013) Good news, bad news, consumer sentiment and consumption behaviour, Journal of Economic Psychology
Increased conversion rates, better educational results, and stronger promotions. Read more to find out how the Zeigarnik effect can help you achieve all these…
Zeigarnik, B (1927) Über das Behalten von erledigten und unerledigten Handlungen, Psychologische Forschung
Manipulating consumers with a complex pricing strategy may come back to bite you. Find out why here…
Lynn, Flynn, & Helion (2013) Do Consumers Prefer Round Prices? Journal of Economic Psychology
