Warning, you’ll hear a lie in this episode. 

You won’t be told it's a lie. 

And 29% of those who listen probably won’t spot the lie. But if you listen till the end, you’ll learn the proven tips to spot lies like these. 

Today on Nudge, Professor Richard Wiseman explains: 

1) How to spot a liar 

2) What makes someone lucky 

3) If we’re really separated by six connections 

4) And why enlarged pupils made men buy books

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Richard’s book Quirkology: https://amzn.to/4shYOJ6 

Richard’s book 59 Seconds: https://amzn.to/3Pf9pWI 

Richard’s SubStack: https://richardwiseman.substack.com/ 

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Today’s sources: 

DePaulo, B. M., & Morris, W. L. (2004). Discerning lies from truths: Behavioural cues to deception and the indirect pathway of intuition. In P. A. Granhag & L. A. Strömwall (Eds.), The detection of deception in forensic contexts (pp. 15–40). Cambridge University Press.

The Global Deception Research Team. (2006). A world of lies. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37(1), 60–74.

Milgram, S. (1967). The small-world problem. Psychology Today, 1, 61–67.

Stewart, J. E., II. (1980). Defendant’s attractiveness as a factor in the outcome of criminal trials: An observational study. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 10(4), 348–361.

Vrij, A. (2000). Detecting lies and deceit: The psychology of lying and the implications for professional practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Wiseman, R. (1995). The Megalab truth test. Nature, 373, 391.

Wiseman, R. (2003, June 4). It really is a small world that we live in. The Daily Telegraph, p. 16.

There's a pill on Amazon called Fukitol. 

It contains nothing. And yet people buy it, swear by it, and give it five stars. 

Today, Nir Eyal explains the remarkable science behind why placebos work.

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Listen to the bonus episode: https://nudge.kit.com/40414a1b44

Nir’s book Beyond Belief: geni.us/beyondbelief

Nir’s free belief change guide: nirandfar.com/belief-change

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Today’s sources: 

Ariel, G., & Saville, W. (1972). Anabolic steroids: The physiological effects of placebos. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 4(2), 124–126.

Branthwaite, A., & Cooper, P. (1981). Analgesic effects of branding in treatment of headaches. British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Ed.), 282(6276), 1576–1578.

Dawkins, L., Shahzad, F. Z., Ahmed, S. S., & Edmonds, C. J. (2011). Expectation of having consumed caffeine can improve performance and mood. Appetite, 57(3), 597–600.

Draganich, C., & Erdal, K. (2014). Placebo sleep affects cognitive functioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(3), 857–864.

Kaptchuk, T. J. (2018). Open-label placebo: Reflections on a research agenda. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 61(3), 311–334.

Lee, C., Linkenauger, S. A., Bakdash, J. Z., Joy-Gaba, J. A., & Profitt, D. R. (2011). Putting like a pro: The role of positive contagion in golf performance and perception. PLoS One, 6(10), e26016.

Plassmann, H., O'Doherty, J., Shiv, B., & Rangel, A. (2008). Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(3), 1050–1054.

Richter, C. P. (1957). On the phenomenon of sudden death in animals and man. Psychosomatic Medicine, 19(3), 191–198.

Rozenkrantz, L., Mayo, A. E., Ilan, T., Hart, Y., Noy, L., & Alon, U. (2017). Placebo can enhance creativity. PLoS One, 12, e0182466.

Wager, T. D., Rilling, J. K., Smith, E. E., Sokolik, A., Casey, K. L., Davidson, R. J., et al. (2004). Placebo-induced changes in fMRI in the anticipation and experience of pain. Science, 303(5661), 1162–1167.

Professor Richard Wiseman wanted to discover the world’s #1 chat-up line. 

But in doing so, he discovered several secrets behind human psychology. 

On today’s Nudge he covers: 

1) Why councils shouldn’t pay people to sweep litter 

2) How a saleswoman doubled her likeability 

3) The picture Richard uses to never lose his wallet 

4) And the #1 chat-up line 

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Richard’s book Quirkology: https://amzn.to/4shYOJ6 

Richard’s book 59 Seconds: https://amzn.to/3Pf9pWI 

Richard’s SubStack: https://richardwiseman.substack.com/ 

Join 11,934 readers of the Nudge Newsletter: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/mailing-list

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Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew/ 

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Aronson, E., Willerman, B., & Floyd, J. (1966). The effect of a pratfall on increasing interpersonal attractiveness. Psychonomic Science, 4, 227–228.

Hornstein, H. A., Fisch, E., & Holmes, M. (1968). Influence of a model’s feeling about his behavior and his relevance as a comparison on other observers’ helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10(3), 222–226.

Kohn, A. (1993). Punished by rewards: The trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A’s, praise, and other bribes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Lepper, M. R., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. E. (1973). Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the “overjustification” hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28, 129–137.

I get a lot of questions about pricing. 

Should I start with our most expensive item first?

Should I use precise prices instead of rounded ones when negotiating?

Should I name competitors when comparing prices?

Today, with pricing expert Dr Markus Husemann-Kopetzky we work through eight different psychological pricing tips in just 24 minutes.

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Listen to the bonus episode: https://nudge.kit.com/a737588e58 

Markus’ book: https://amzn.to/46Hetcg 

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Today’s sources:

Bertini, M., & Wathieu, L. (2008). Research note—Attention arousal through price partitioning. Marketing Science, 27(2), 236–246.

Bolton, L. E., Warlop, L., & Alba, J. W. (2003). Consumer perceptions of price (un)fairness. Journal of Consumer Research, 29(4), 474–491.

Janiszewski, C., & Uy, D. (2008). Precision of the anchor influences the amount of adjustment. Psychological Science, 19(2), 121–127.

Kim, H. M., & Kramer, T. (2006). The moderating effects of need for cognition and cognitive effort on responses to multi‐dimensional prices. Journal of Marketing Research.

Krishnan, B. C., Biswas, A., & Netemeyer, R. G. (2006). Semantic cues in reference price advertisements: The moderating role of cue concreteness. Journal of Retailing, 82(2), 95–104.

Suk, K., Lee, J., & Lichtenstein, D. R. (2012). The influence of price presentation order on consumer choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 49(5), 708–717.

Thomas, M., Simon, D. H., & Kadiyali, V. (2010). The price precision effect: Evidence from laboratory and market data. Marketing Science, 29(1), 175–190.

Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185(4157), 1124–1131.

Wansink, B., Kent, R. J., & Hoch, S. J. (1998). An anchoring and adjustment model of purchase quantity decisions. Journal of Marketing Research, 35(1), 71–81.

Most restaurants have a major problem. 

Paying the bill. 

Give the bill too early, and the customer feels rushed. Too late, and they feel ignored. 

To solve this problem (and many more), Will Guidara turned to behavioural science. 

And his solution helped his restaurant become the world’s best.

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Listen to the bonus episode: ⁠https://nudge.kit.com/aeea58886f⁠ 

Will’s book Unreasonable Hospitality: ⁠https://amzn.to/4tPrMl8⁠ 

Will’s new book The Field Guide: ⁠https://amzn.to/3Orq1u0⁠ 

Will’s newsletter, Pre-Meal: ⁠https://www.unreasonablehospitality.com/premeal⁠

Unlock the Nudge Vaults: ⁠https://www.nudgepodcast.com/vaults⁠

Join 10,728 readers of my newsletter: ⁠https://www.nudgepodcast.com/mailing-list ⁠

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Today’s sources:

Kahneman, D., Fredrickson, B. L., Schreiber, C. A., & Redelmeier, D. A. (1993). When more pain is preferred to less: Adding a better end. Psychological Science, 4(6), 401–405. 

Shotton, R. (2023). The illusion of choice: 16½ psychological biases that influence what we buy. Harriman House.

Strohmetz, D. B., Rind, B., Fisher, R., & Lynn, M. (2002). Sweetening the till: The use of candy to increase restaurant tipping. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32(2), 300–309.

In 2015, the media became obsessed with one man’s attempts to grow tea in the Scottish Highlands. 

The BBC profiled him on the One Show. Radio reporters flocked to interview him. Even the Chinese national news agency reported his work. 

Tam O’Braan (as he was then known) was the first to ever sell Scottish tea, and the press went wild. 

Fornum and Mason bought his leaves. The Dorchester created a new Scottish tea-tasting menu. Barack Obama reportedly tried his tea, and the Queen loved it.

Tam’s business started bringing in hundreds of thousands of pounds. But soon his lies began to unravel.

Today, with Jaega Wise, we tell the story of the Scottish tea scandal. We explain how Tam O’Brann fooled the world and the psychology behind why so many customers believed him.

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Listen to the BBC Food Program’s show on the scandal: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002mn01

Learn more about Jaega: https://www.jaegawise.com/ 

Unlock the Nudge Vaults: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/vaults

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Today’s sources: 

Koschate-Fischer, N., Diamantopoulos, A., & Oldenkotte, K. (2012). Are consumers really willing to pay more for a favorable country image? A study of country-of-origin effects on willingness to pay. Journal of International Marketing, 20(1), 19–41.

Langer, E. J., Blank, A., & Chanowitz, B. (1978). The mindlessness of ostensibly thoughtful action: The role of “placebic” information in interpersonal interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(6), 635–642.

Mackie, D. M., Worth, L. T., & Asuncion, A. G. (1990). Processing of persuasive in-group messages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(5), 812–822.

Maier, L., Schreier, M., Baccarella, C. V., & Voigt, K.-I. (2023). University knowledge inside: How and when university–industry collaborations make new products more attractive to consumers. Journal of Marketing.

Peterson, R. A., Kim, Y., & Jeong, J. (2019). Out-of-stock, sold out, or unavailable? Framing a product outage in online retailing. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice.

Will Guidara is the co-founder and restaurateur behind the world’s best restaurant. 

But Will’s not a standard restaurateur. He didn’t just focus on creating the best food. 

He used psychology and behavioural science to build the best experience. 

Listen to learn how his restaurant became #1 by using anchoring, reciprocity and many more psych principles.

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Listen to the bonus episode: https://nudge.kit.com/aeea58886f 

Will’s book Unreasonable Hospitality: https://amzn.to/4tPrMl8 

Will’s new book The Field Guide: https://amzn.to/3Orq1u0 

Will’s newsletter, Pre-Meal: https://www.unreasonablehospitality.com/premeal

Unlock the Nudge Vaults: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/vaults

Join 10,728 readers of my newsletter: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/mailing-list 

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew/

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Today’s sources:

Mukherjee, A., Smith, R. J., & Burton, S. (2021). The effect of positive anticipatory utility on product pre-order evaluations and choices. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 51, 551–569.

Pariyadath, V., & Eagleman, D. M. (2007). The effect of predictability on subjective duration. PLOS ONE, 2(11), e1264.

Do nine-ending prices really work? 

Will £9.99 sell more than £10.00? Can it be used for high-quality products? What about hedonic products? Can it be used on speed limits? 

For years this debate has raged on. But today on Nudge, I speak with pricing expert Dr Markus Husemann-Kopetzky to settle the argument.

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Markus’ book: https://amzn.to/46Hetcg 

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Today’s sources: 

Gendall, P. (1998). Estimating the effect of odd pricing. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 7(5), 421–432.

Husemann-Kopetzky, M. (2018). Handbook on the psychology of pricing: 100+ effects on persuasion and influence every entrepreneur, marketer and pricing manager needs to know. Independently published.

ITN Archive. (2022, November 28). “I will not accept that it’s a highly dangerous road” (1988) [Video]. YouTube.

Kim, J., Novemsky, N., & Dhar, R. (2013). Adding small differences can increase similarity and choice. Psychological Science, 24(2), 176–182.

Nunes, J. C., & Park, C. W. (2003). Incommensurate resources: Not just more of the same. Journal of Marketing Research, 40(1), 26–38.

Rubinstein, A., & Yee, V. (2020). The left-digit bias: When and why are consumers penny wise and pound foolish? Journal of Marketing Research, 57(3), 467–485.

Schindler, R. M., & Kibarian, T. M. (1996). Increased consumer sales response through use of 99-ending prices. Journal of Retailing, 72(2), 187–199.

Shotton, R. (2018). The choice factory: 25 behavioural biases that influence what we buy. Harriman House.

Suwelack, T., Hogreve, J., & Hoyer, W. D. (2011). Understanding money-back guarantees: Cognitive, affective, and behavioral effects. Journal of Retailing, 87(4), 462–478.

Wadhwa, M., & Zhang, K. (2015). This number just feels right: The impact of roundedness of price numbers on product evaluations. Journal of Consumer Research, 41

Today on Nudge, Professor Katie Slocombe shares how chimpanzees handle power, build alliances, and jostle for status in their troop.

It’s the first time on Nudge that we’ve looked at the primate roots of leadership and influence, with plenty of insight into how we humans behave at work (and everywhere else). Don’t miss it. 

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Today’s sources: 

Slocombe, K. E., & Zuberbühler, K. (2007). Chimpanzees modify recruitment screams as a function of audience composition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(43), 17228–17233.
Slocombe, K. E., Waller, B. M., & Liebal, K. (2011). The language void: The need for multimodality in primate communication research. Animal Behaviour, 81(5), 919–924.

16 years ago a chain of Chinese restaurants wanted to increase sales without changing the price. 

They didn’t change the product. 

The service. 

The chef. 

The food. 

Instead, they changed two words on their menu and increased sales by 18%. 

The restaurants used the advice of today’s guest on Nudge, Robert Cialdini. 

Today, Cialdini explains the social proof principle, sharing how changing just two words could increase your sales.

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Unlock the Nudge Vaults: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/vaults

Read Cialdini’s bestseller Influence: https://amzn.to/4prHb7Y

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Read Pre-Suasion: https://amzn.to/48hA6Qr 

Read Yes! (Containing 60 Psyc-Marketing Tips): https://amzn.to/48ddNNf 

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Today’s sources: 

Aune, R. K., & Basil, M. D. (1994). A relational-obligations approach to fund-raising: The effects of guilt and credibility appeals on compliance. Communication Research, 21(4), 486–498.

Binning, K. R., Kaufmann, N., McGreevy, E. M., Fotuhi, O., Chen, S., Marshman, E., Kalender, Z. Y., Limeri, L. B., Betancur, L., & Singh, C. (2020). Changing social contexts to foster equity in college science courses: An ecological-belonging intervention. Psychological Science, 31(9), 1059–1070.

Boh, W. F., & Wong, S.-S. (2015). Managers versus co-workers as referents: Comparing social influence effects on within- and outside-subsidiary knowledge sharing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 126, 1–17.

Borman, G. D., Rozek, C. S., Hanselman, P., & Destin, M. (2019). Reappraising academic and social adversity improves middle school students’ academic achievement, behavior, and well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(33), 16286–16291.

Cai, H., Chen, Y., & Fang, H. (2009). Observational learning: Evidence from a randomized natural field experiment. American Economic Review, 99(3), 864–882.

Frank, R. H. (2020). Under the influence: Putting peer pressure to work. Princeton University Press.

Goldstein, N. J., Cialdini, R. B., & Griskevicius, V. (2008). A room with a viewpoint: Using social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(3), 472–482.

Hallsworth, M., List, J. A., Metcalfe, R. D., & Vlaev, I. (2017). The behavioralist as tax collector: Using natural field experiments to enhance tax compliance. Journal of Public Economics, 148, 14–31.

Jung, J., Busching, R., & Krahé, B. (2019). Catching aggression from one’s peers: A longitudinal and multilevel analysis. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 13(4), e12440.

Linder, J. A., Meeker, D., Fox, C. R., Friedberg, M. W., Persell, S. D., Goldstein, N. J., Knight, T. K., Hay, J. W., & Doctor, J. N. (2017). Durability of benefits of behavioral interventions on inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in primary care: Follow-up from a cluster randomized clinical trial. JAMA, 318(14), 1391–1392.

Meeker, D., Linder, J. A., Fox, C. R., Friedberg, M. W., Persell, S. D., Goldstein, N. J., Knight, T. K., Hay, J. W., & Doctor, J. N. (2016). Effect of behavioral interventions on inappropriate antibiotic prescribing among primary care practices: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA, 315(6), 562–570.

Murrar, S., Campbell, M. R., & Brauer, M. (2020). Exposure to peers’ pro-diversity attitudes increases inclusion and reduces the achievement gap. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(9), 889–897.

Nolan, J. M. (2021). Social norm interventions as a tool for pro-climate change. Current Opinion in Psychology, 42, 120–125.

Peterson, R. A., Kim, Y., & Jeong, J. (2020). Out-of-stock, sold out, or unavailable? Framing a product outage in online retailing. Psychology & Marketing, 37(4), 535–547.

I watched Home Alone and suddenly started hearing the theme tune everywhere. 

I thought I was going insane. 

But Tom Bowden-Green and Luan Wise explained that I actually fell for a fairly well-known bias. 

A bias you’ve almost certainly experienced as well. 

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Come to Uplift Live: https://uplift-live.com/

(Use code NUDGE to get £50 off) 

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Today’s sources: 

Costello, J. P., Garvey, A. M., Germann, F., & Wilkie, J. E. B. (2024). The Uptrend Effect: Encouraging healthy behaviors through greater inferred normativity. Journal of Marketing Research, 61(1), 110–127.

Cruz, R. E., Leonhardt, J. M., & Pezzuti, T. (2017). Second person pronouns enhance consumer involvement and brand attitude. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 39(1), 104–116.

Khan, U., & Dhar, R. (2006). Licensing effect in consumer choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(2), 259–266.

Lim, S., van Osselaer, S. M., Goodman, J. K., Fuchs, C., & Schreier, M. (2024). The Starbucks effect: When name-based order identification increases customers’ store preference and service satisfaction. Journal of Retailing, 100(2), 316–329.

Sahni, N. S., Wheeler, S. C., & Chintagunta, P. (2018). Personalization in email marketing: The role of noninformative advertising content. Marketing Science, 37(2), 236–258.

Van Boven, L., Dunning, D., & Loewenstein, G. (2000). Egocentric empathy gaps between owners and buyers: Misperceptions of the endowment effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(1), 66–76.

van der Meulen, M. (2022). Are we indeed so illuded? Recency and frequency illusions in Dutch prescriptivism. Languages, 7(1), 42.

Zwicky, A. (2006). Why are we so illuded. Retrieved from https://web.stanford.edu/~zwicky/LSA07illude.abst.pdf