Persuasive patterns: designing for the brain
Brain behavioral patterns to help you design for the mind.
A guide to nudging decisions using psychology
What are persuasive patterns?
(Hint: they're really important for marketers, CX and UX teams)
The first misconception is that it is possible to avoid influencing people's choices
Richard H. Thaler, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
How do we make decisions?
Behavioral scientists and cognitive psychologists have been riffing on this one for over fifty years.
It turns out that it's very rarely logic and concrete reasoning which steers our decision-making process. Who would have guessed it?!
Instead, it's a complex mix of cognitive biases, instinctive tendencies, and social cues - many of which are bubbling away without our conscious awareness.
This means that the way we make decisions is irrational, confusing and at times just plain weird. Our brains are influenced by a huge number of forces that we are barely conscious of.
In fact, as Richard H. Thaler tells us in Nudge: Improving Decisions about Wealth, Health and Happiness, there are so many things that influence our decisions that it's almost impossible to present anything in a neutral way.
If only we could tap into the unconscious and instinctive ways brains work, and design around them...
There are patterns in brain-behavior. These patterns show us what brains are naturally drawn to and - importantly - what persuades them during decision making.
That means that we can tap into the instinctive ways we think, and use this knowledge to guide our design. Following these patterns leads to content which is inherently brain-pleasing.
Every tiny detail - from default settings on a sign-up form, to the layout of an FAQ page - has an impact on the ways we think and the decisions we make. What if these were designed with the brain in mind?
Designing for the brain reduces any unnecessary friction in the decision-making process and makes it easier for brains to engage with choices.
This is so important that a quarter of marketing departments are set to have a dedicated behavioral scientist as part of their staff by 2022.
Persuasive patterns are:
- Derived from human behavior. They are insights into how we subconsciously make choices and what appeals to the brain.
- Elements to bring into your design to encourage users to make clearer choices.
- Useful for marketers, designers, CX and UX teams who want to make their content more cognitively aware.
Gently coaxing brains to make better decisions
Nudge (behavioral science)
to gently influence someone's decision without restricting their power to choose.
"A nudge is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives"
- Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness
Persuasive patterns are all about nudging.
Nudge theory was defined by Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler and legal scholar Cass Sunstein. The whole idea is that brains can be encouraged unconsciously to make better decisions by being gently coaxed in a particular direction.
Importantly, nudges are not limiting or restrictive. They can easily be ignored by a person without causing them hassle or economic costs. This means that individuals still have freedom of choice while being encouraged to make healthier, more conscious and better decisions.
Nudges are key instruments in every behavioral scientist's toolkit. In fact, governments around the world have their own dedicated Nudge Units who are responsible for helping businesses and individuals improve decision making.
There are currently 13 Nudge Units across 13 countries around the world - from Japan to Canada.
There are several different types of nudge. Let's take a look at each, and how you can use it for yourself.
This nudge's goal is to encourage people to be more conscious of their decision-making process. It might be simply to ask them to justify their choice, or analyze any snap decisions.
This nudge is designed to go under the radar. Mindless nudges target subconscious behavior and attempt to change it without attracting attention.
Encouraging nudges target sustainable and responsible decisions. They are built around the idea of encouraging people to make a decision that might not have immediate gratification, but are beneficial long-term.
Discouraging nudges are used on cigarette packaging. They are intended to dissuade people from making potentially damaging or harmful decisions. They attempt to draw attention to the decision being made.
These are some of the most gentle nudges, which encourage individuals towards decisions that they wanted to make anyway. This might be a notification from an exercise app to reach a certain health goal.
These are firmer nudges that encourage someone to make a decision they were unlikely to make otherwise.
A great example of nudging in action is the urinal fly. Cleaners at Schipol airport in Amsterdam were trying to cut down on cleaning costs and increase hygiene in the urinals in particular.
They decided to place fly stickers in each of the urinals. They aimed to nudge people to aim for the stickers and reduce the amount of spillage. This is based on the instinctive reaction to want to expel a pest, resulting in a cleaner bathroom.
The nudge was a huge success, and urinal fly nudges are now used all over the world, from London to Singapore. Urinalfly.com states that these inventions keep bathrooms up to 85% cleaner.
Reminding people of how others have acted in decision-making processes can help steer their decision.
This is the strategy EON followed to nudge customers to reduce their energy usage. They sent out letters to their customers letting them know how much they were using compared to their closest neighbors. When people heard that their neighbors were using less energy than them, they were likely to decrease their usage to match their neighbors.
A phenomenon similar to FOMO, this makes the most out of herd mentality - how we tend to behave like those around us.
Building persuasive contexts
Layout makes all the difference
"organizing the context in which people make decisions"
Robert H. Thaler & C. Sunstein, The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy
Think back to the last time you ate at a restaurant. You looked down at the menu and probably imagined that you were choosing your own meal based on what you felt like eating that particular day.
Or think about when you were picking up your groceries. Deciding what to buy was, presumably, a conscious decision based on personal preference, taste and brand choices. Or was it?
Choice architecture theory states that it's the way things are presented to us, and the context they are in, which nudges us in a particular direction. This is used by marketers to steer everything from food choices in restaurants to healthier choices in supermarkets.
Just as a building architect must eventually build some particular building, a choice architect must choose a particular arrangement of food options at lunch, and by so doing she can influence what people eat. She can nudge.
― Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein
A cafeteria owner realizes that the way they order the items on a menu affects the choices people make. Options at the beginning and end of the menu are chosen more, along with choices at eye-level.
This means that the owner can be a 'choice architect' and layout the menu based on which decisions they want their customers to make. If they want to encourage healthier options, they can put these as first and last on the menu.
One of the easiest ways to put choice architecture into practice yourself is by making the most out of the default option.
It's a staple of choice architecture that people are more likely to accept the default option than any custom option available. This is not only the simpler option, but in most cases, means that the user doesn't have to weigh up the benefits and risks of each choice themselves.
Successful choice architecture
In 2010, the British government established its Behavioural Insights Team, which was responsible for helping the public make more responsible decisions.
The Behavioral Insights Team - or the Nudge Unit as it was commonly known - was informed by Richard Thaler that people have a tendency to accept default settings. Based on this, the government changed the default settings from opt-out to opt-in on company pensions.
As a result, saving for pensions has become commonplace, and it's now a new normal for people to have savings into retirement. Successful choice architecture in practice.
Driving decisions by understanding risk
How do brains feel about risky decisions?
Brains are drawn instinctively to a certain kind of risk to reward ratio. When it comes to decisions where the outcome is uncertain, there's a particular way our brains deal with the prospect of loss.
To demonstrate this, here's an experiment for you to try out yourself:
You are offered a gamble on the toss of a coin.
If the coin shows tails, you lose $100.
If the coin shows heads, you win $150.
Would you take the gamble?
Most people wouldn't. Why? As Daniel Kahneman says in Thinking, Fast and Slow:
For most people, the fear of losing $100 is more intense than the hope of gaining $150. We concluded from many such observations that "losses loom larger than gains" and that people are loss averse.
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast & Slow
Designing around loss aversion
We're fearful more than we are hopeful - so what?
It means that people are more likely to make decisions which deliver in a small loss with no risk, than a decision which results in a greater gain with a large risk. This principle is known as Prospect theory. Here's how Prospect theory can help you design persuasive decisions:
We would rather have a certain lesser gain than a risky larger gain. That means that it's more appealing to your audience to offer smaller rewards - like a 10% discount - than a chance to win a larger reward - like a holiday raffle.
2. Isolation effect
We tend to ignore similar elements in choices, in order to make the decision process simpler. That means that the one differentiating feature will stand out to us.
Consider this when presenting choices to your audience - they will find decisions easier when choices are presented alongside each other, with the main differentiator highlighted.
3. Negative experiences
Since we react stronger to loss than to gains, we are more likely to remember negative experiences we have than positive ones. This is one of the greatest challenges facing companies, since a range of positive experiences are easily overshadowed by one negative experience.
How to frame persuasively and perceptively
Let's do a thought experiment. Imagine you're shopping for the healthiest type of icecream at the supermarket. You narrow it down to two options, one which is 80% fat-free and another which is 20% fat.
Which icecream do you choose?
- The 80% fat-free option
- The 20% fat option
How we perceive choices is hugely dependent on how they're framed. Focusing on the positives instead of the negatives is more likely to persuade someone. After all, as we've already learned, we have much more of an eagle-eye for negative attributes.
It can be tempting to try and persuade someone to make a decision by trying to impress them with flowery language and descriptions. Many businesses think that this encourages a greater perception.
This is simply wrong. Oppenheimer (2005) found that there's a negative relationship between complexity and perceived intelligence. When faced with a complex piece of content, people are likely to underestimate the level of intelligence of the writer. In fact, even if the content itself is interesting, people are dissuaded by the complicated language it's presented in.
When faced with a complex piece of content, people are likely to underestimate the level of intelligence of the writer.
Easier and simpler decisions appeal to us much more than complex ones. Reducing the number of options, presenting choices clearly and only showing the most important attributes can help persuade someone with their decision-making.
Deci and Ryan conducted a study where they examined what's behind positive experiences. They found that we perceive tasks more favorably when we can make our own decisions and navigate at our own will.
We’re fans of being free. Rather than be directed straight from point A to point B, we’d like to forge our own path. That means that we're persuaded easily by something which allows us to explore ourselves. This is why demos and demo accounts are appealing to us, and might just tempt us into making a purchasing decision.
Four key takeaways
Consider yourself a cognitive architect 🎓
1. Nudges are the way to steer decisions
Whether encouraging, discouraging, mindful or unmindful, nudges are the way to persuade your audience to make better decisions.
2. Build your choice context carefully
Factor layout into your design process. The order you present in might just change the way your content is perceived.
3. Losses loom larger than gains
Persuade your audience with stable, small gains instead of risky large ones.
4. Simplicity and positivity are persuasive
It makes our brains happy when choices are simple. It also makes them happy when we're shown the positives of a choice and not the negatives.
Does your company practice persuasive patterns?
- We've got behavioral science coming out of our ears
- Not right now, but watch this space!
- It's all nonsense.
- Persuasive what-now?