#154 Did You REALLY Want to Buy That?

Welcome back.

I’m currently a third of the way through the book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (I’m reading the Updated/Final Edition). It’s basically about how companies, politicians, or any individual can get others to do what they want with “minimal intervention.” We’re constantly bombarded with tactics that move us in a particular direction when making decisions, and a lot of the time, we don’t even know it’s happening.

I want to share an example that’s really stuck with me as the main focus of this edition. Persuasion is so much more complex than we realize, but in a world filled with endless choices, these nudges are always there. Fascinating how this can be applied both in business and in our personal lives.

A NUDGE STORY.

Whoever Designs the Environment Also Designs the Behavior

A food services director named Carolyn oversees cafeterias for large city school systems.

She has formal, traditional training in nutrition but doesn’t like to think about things in the same traditional ways. “One evening, over a good bottle of wine, she and her friend Adam, a statistically-oriented management consultant who has worked with supermarket chains, hatched an interesting idea. Without changing any menus, they would run some experiments in schools to determine whether the way the food is displayed and arranged might influence the choices kids make.”

So they began to mess with the placement of key food items across various cafeterias. For example, in some they’d put desserts first in line while in others they’d either save sweets for last or put them somewhere out of the way. Or they’d put french fries at eye level in some cafeterias while giving carrots and fruit that prime real estate in others. All the same food options. Nothing added or taken away. No assembly or lecture explaining the changes to the kids. Just different presentation.

The result: arrangement had a major impact on how often kids chose certain items.

Nudge’s authors, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, refer to people like Carolyn as choice architects because they design the environment in which decisions get made. Which, of course, affects the decision-making itself.

I can’t shake how this idea of whoever designs the environment designs the behavior comes into play all around us.

Take, for example, the adult version of a school cafeteria: the grocery store. Now that I’m paying attention, it’s eye-opening how deliberately everything is positioned. You feel it the second you walk in - the discount signs thrown in your face, the eye-level placement of items they want to push (“eye-level is buy-level”), that whole lineup of “quick-hitters” right before checkout, perfectly chosen to be light, cheap and easy to toss in your bag at the last minute…

Or what about Amazon? “Today’s Deals” hit you right there on the homepage. Then there’s a carousel of “Frequently bought together” suggesting that you tack on one more item. And finally, when you make it to checkout, a nice little “you’re $5.99 away from same day delivery!”

Nudge, Nudge, Nudge.

What I am noticing in the grocery store and with Amazon leans on the questionable side of what nudges can do. Like I wonder: “What game is being played by these companies with their positioning? Are they trying to have me spend more just to clear the shelves?” That’s likely the risk assessment DNA I have from my career talking but still.

However, I’ve also learned from the book that nudges can actually be good for us, and the book goes into examples that showcase how. When I finish, I will share my favorite example in another edition.

So what should we take from all this?

In this society of constant consumption with endless choices, nudges can make all the difference for businesses, no matter how big or small they are.

But, from the consumer angle, we can use this awareness to be disciplined, to make sure that we are not gamed into buying something we don’t want. At grocery stores, go in with a list or a plan (and make sure you don’t shop on an empty stomach); on Amazon, don’t give in to their little incentives - do you really need same-day when it’s gonna come tomorrow anyway?

Awareness + Discipline = Only Buying What You Really Want

This was a cool look from a different angle at how persuasion works. It’s not just about what you say or offer; it’s also about how you present those words, products, or services.

• Communication Tip: what you lead with (hook), the order of the points you make, how you present counterarguments (or competitors), etc. all impact how effective your “nudge” will be.

There’s a really good TED Talk called “Are We In Control of Our Decisions?” that gives so many good examples of choice architecture, but here’s one (paraphrased) that I’ll never forget:

You go to the DMV to get a new license, and there’s a check box in your paperwork to “opt in” to being an organ donor. Most people don’t check the box. So the government, worried about the ramifications of not having organ donations, changes the default option and how the choice is presented - the check box now asks if you’d like to “opt out,” and guess what? People still don’t check the box.

• Communication Tip: pay close attention to detail, especially when it comes to forms and/or defaults for automated or recurring choices.

It’s not a trick. (That’s one word I disagreed with in Dan’s write-up - they’re not gaming you.) No one forces you to do anything; no one removes options; no one lies or misinforms.

Dan used the term “endless choice” earlier - when you have that many options, easy decisions become hard. Think about the last time you went to a restaurant with a massive menu. Choosing what to eat isn’t a high-stakes, life-or-death matter, and yet a 10-page diner menu can stall decision-making.

So “architects” nudge to make it easier. If you’re on the fence, might you end up making an unintended purchase? Sure. But that’s how persuasion works. If you were adamantly against it, you wouldn’t have bought or donated or changed your thinking because of a little push.

TYING THIS BACK TO AI:

Now more than ever do companies have the ability to nudge us using AI within their apps, websites, etc. And while AI can be great for a business to help boost the customer experience, maybe its not the best for customers to be overly trusting every little “suggestion” that flashes on our screens.

The way out doesn’t mean go cold-turkey and get off the grid. I believe the path in a world where the default is to buy ASAP, choosing to pause, to wait or to walk away is its own kind of nudge, but one designed for yourself.

Before You Go!

Thanks for reading. Next week, we’ll be back with another AI-forward edition of On The Fly, but as always, the human element will not be forgotten!

In the meantime, if you have any stories, ideas, or things you’ve read that you believe would benefit our readers, feel free to shoot us an email at [email protected]. We’d love to feature you the same way we featured Tim’s story last week.

As always, see you on Tuesday.

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