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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(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

HelloFresh is one of the fastest-growing companies of the past 20 years. 

And it’s down to one, relatively simple behavioural science tactic. 

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Today’s sources:

Buechel, E., & Li, R. (2022). Mysterious consumption: Preference for horizontal (vs. vertical) uncertainty and the role of surprise. Journal of Consumer Research, 49(6), 987–1004.

Norton, M. I., Mochon, D., & Ariely, D. (2012). The IKEA effect: When labor leads to love. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 22(3), 453–460.

Skinner, B. F. (1948). “Superstition” in the pigeon. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38(2), 168–172.

BBC News. (2015, August 12). The man who discovered Harry Potter [Video]. YouTube

Melanie Wass. (2019, September 16). J.K. Rowling – Insights on creating Harry Potter world [Video]. YouTube.

Most of us are completely oblivious to the cognitive biases that dictate how we live our lives. 

Today, with Tom Bowden-Green and Luan Wise, we cover seven cognitive biases that all of us fall for. 

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Today’s sources: 

Chambers, J. R. (2008). Explaining false uniqueness: Why we are both better and worse than others. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(2), 878–894.

Dunning, D. (2011). The Dunning–Kruger effect: On being ignorant of one’s own ignorance. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 44, pp. 247–296). Academic Press.

Einhorn, H. J., & Hogarth, R. M. (1978). Confidence in judgment: Persistence of the illusion of validity. Psychological Review, 85(5), 395–416.

Helmreich, R., Aronson, E., & LeFan, J. (1970). To err is humanizing sometimes: Effects of self-esteem, competence, and a pratfall on interpersonal attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16(2), 259–264.

Koskie, M. M., & Locander, W. B. (2023). Cool brands and hot attachments: Their effect on consumers’ willingness to pay more. European Journal of Marketing, 57(4), 905–929.

Pronin, E., Lin, D. Y., & Ross, L. (2002). The bias blind spot: Perceptions of bias in self versus others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(3), 369–381.

Van Hoorens, V. (1993). Self-enhancement and superiority biases in social comparison. European Review of Social Psychology, 4, 113–139.

White, G. L., Fishbein, M., & Rutstein, R. C. (1981). Passionate love and the misattribution of arousal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(1), 56–62.

“Say you’ve calculated your price and it comes out at £120,121. 

Most would round it down to £120,000. 

That’s completely wrong.” 

That’s what Robert Cialdini told me on the latest episode of Nudge. 

He also explained why the Prime energy drink first succeeded and then flopped. 

How Disney kept us hooked on classic movies. 

And how he applies the authority bias to sell his own products. 

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Today’s sources: 

Cialdini, R. B. (2021). Influence: The psychology of persuasion (New & expanded ed.). Harper Business.

Dunn, E. W., & Norton, M. I. (2013). Happy money: The science of happier spending. Simon & Schuster.

Nelissen, R. M. A., & Meijers, M. H. C. (2011). Social benefits of luxury brands as costly signals of wealth and status. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32(5), 343–355.

West, S. G. (1975). Increasing the attractiveness of college cafeteria food: A reactance theory perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60(5), 656–658.

Wilson, P. R. (1968). Perceptual distortion of height as a function of ascribed academic status. Journal of Social Psychology, 74(1), 97–102.

Worchel, S., Lee, J., & Adewole, A. (1975). Effects of scarcity on value perception: The cookie-jar study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31(5), 791–799.

This study analysed 6,700 websites in an unprecedented A/B test. 

The results proved something that Dr Robert Cialdini had been preaching for years. 

Today, on Nudge, Robert Cialdini joins me again, covering another of his seven principles of persuasion. 

And I share a marketing lesson that (I think) every business needs to know.

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Today’s sources: 

Bell, T. [Taylor Bell]. (2025, February 13). Inside Trader Joe’s: The genius strategy behind its cult following (and low prices) [Video]. YouTube.

Bornstein, R. F., Leone, D. R., & Galley, D. J. (1987). The generalizability of subliminal mere exposure effects: Influence of stimuli perceived without awareness on social behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(6), 1070–1079.

Browne, D., & Swarbrick-Jones, A. (2017). The science of persuasion in e-commerce: An analysis of 6,700 online A/B tests. Conversion Rate Experts.

Danziger, S., Levav, J., & Avnaim-Pesso, L. (2011). Extraneous factors in judicial decisions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(17), 6889–6892.

Drachman, D., deCarufel, A., & Insko, C. A. (1978). The extra credit effect in interpersonal attraction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 14(5), 458–465.

Fang, X., Singh, S. N., & Ahluwalia, R. (2007). An examination of different explanations for the mere exposure effect. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(1), 97–103.

Gladka, A., & Żemła, M. (2016). Effectiveness of reciprocal rule in tourism: Evidence from a city tourist restaurant. European Journal of Service Management, 17(1), 57–63.

Mita, T. H., Dermer, M., & Knight, J. (1977). Reversed facial images and the mere-exposure hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35(8), 597–601.

Nicholson, C. Y., Compeau, L. D., & Sethi, R. (2001). The role of interpersonal liking in building trust in long-term channel relationships. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 29(1), 3–15.

Razran, G. (1940). Conditioned response changes in rating and appraisal. Psychological Bulletin, 37(6), 481–493.

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.

Zajonc, R. B., & Rajecki, D. W. (1969). Exposure and affect: A field experiment. Psychonomic Science, 17(4), 216–217.

KFC keeps its recipe secret. 

It’s stored in a vault in an unknown location. 

Only two KFC executives know the ingredients. 

Neither are allowed to fly on the same plane. 

But this secrecy is illogical. The recipe isn’t important. 

Today on Nudge, Richard Shotton explains how the secrecy makes customers more loyal. 

He shares his favourite ad of all time, and we run one of his experiments on you. 

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Today’s sources: 

Heimbach, J. T., & Jacoby, J. (1972). The Zeigarnik effect in advertising. Advances in Consumer Research: Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference of the Association for Consumer Research, 746–757.

Loewenstein, G. (1994). The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation. Psychological Bulletin, 116(1), 75–98.
Zeigarnik, B. (1927). Über das Behalten von erledigten und unerledigten Handlungen. Psychologische Forschung, 9(1), 1–85.

In 1963, the Milgram experiments revealed something unsettling. 

Most people kept administering what they believed were painful electric shocks, not because they wanted to, but because they couldn’t bring themselves to say no. 

In this episode, my guest shares why we agree to extra projects, unpaid favours and unreasonable requests even when we know we shouldn’t. 

I’m joined by behavioural scientist and physician Dr Sunita Sah of Cornell University. She studies how social pressure and conflict-of-interest disclosures can quietly steer us toward yes.

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Today’s sources: 

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371–378.

Sah, S. (2025). Defy: The power of no in a world that demands yes. One World.

Sah, S., Loewenstein, G. F., & Cain, D. M. (2013). The burden of disclosure: Increased compliance with distrusted advice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(2), 289–304.

Sah, S., Loewenstein, G. F., & Cain, D. M. (2019). Insinuation anxiety: Concern that advice rejection will signal distrust after conflict of interest disclosures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45(7), 1099–1112.

Woodzicka, J. A., & LaFrance, M. (2001). Real versus imagined gender harassment. Journal of Social Issues, 57(1), 15–30.

In today’s special end-of-year episode, you’ll hear the best insights from Nudge in 2025.

Hear from Prof. Gerd Gigerenzer, Richard Shotton, Bas Wouters, Philip Graves, Prof. Matt Johnson and a Behavioural Insights Team director. 

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Today’s Sources: 

Beilock, S. L., Bertenthal, B. I., McCoy, A. M., & Carr, T. H. (2004). Haste does not always make waste: Expertise, direction of attention, and speed versus accuracy in performing sensorimotor skills. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11(2), 373–379.

Bellaiche, L., Shahi, R., Turpin, M. H., Ragnhildstveit, A., Sprockett, S., Barr, N., & Seli, P. (2023). Humans versus AI: Whether and why we prefer human-created compared to AI-created artwork. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 8(1), 42.

Groen, J., & Wouters, B. (2020). Online Influence: Boost your results with proven behavioral science. Amazon Digital Services LLC.

Milkman, K. L., Patel, M. S., Gandhi, L., Graci, H. N., Gromet, D. M., Ho, H., Kay, J. S., Lee, T. W., Akinola, M., Beshears, J., Bogard, J. E., Buttenheim, A. M., Chabris, C. F., Chapman, G. B., Duckworth, A. L., Goldstein, N. J., Goren, A., Halpern, S. D., John, L. K., ... & Van den Bulte, C. (2021). A megastudy of text-based nudges encouraging patients to get vaccinated at an upcoming doctor’s appointment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(20), e2101165118.

Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84(3), 231–259.

van den Broek, E., & den Heijer, T. (2024). The Housefly Effect. Bedford Square Publishers.

Vennard, D., Park, T., & Attwood, S. (2019). Encouraging Sustainable Food Consumption By Using More-Appetizing Language.

How would you encourage Australians to drive slower?

That’s what today’s guest on Nudge, Adam Ferrier, had to do. 

Being an applied behavioural scientist, he tackled this challenge in a novel way. 

Listen to hear about his interesting campaign, how Jaws killed surfing and the secret behind Derren Brown’s “hypnosis” trick. 

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Today’s sources:

Cialdini, R. B. (1984). Influence: The psychology of persuasion. William Morrow.

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

Sutherland, S. (1992). Irrationality: The enemy within. Constable.

Seriously. 

Don’t listen to this episode. 

Whatever you do. 

Don’t.

Press. 

Play.

(Warning: this episode contains explicit language.)

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Today’s sources

Driscoll, R., Davis, K. E., & Lipetz, M. E. (1972). Parental interference and romantic love: The Romeo and Juliet effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24(1), 1–10.

Heath, R. (2006). Brand relationships: strengthened by emotion, weakened by attention. Journal of Advertising Research, 46(4), 410–419.

Maimaran, M., & Fishbach, A. (2014). If it’s useful and you know it, do you eat? Preschoolers refrain from instrumental food. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(3), 642–655.

Mazar, N., & Soman, D. (Eds.). (2022). Behavioral science in the wild: Behaviorally informed organizations. University of Toronto Press.

Ryan, R. M. (1982). Control and information in the intrapersonal sphere: An extension of cognitive evaluation theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43(3), 450–461.

2 out of 3 internet users in the USA pay for Prime. 

Yet, most of them are irrationally loyal. 

They feel like the subscription provides more cost savings than reality. 

Today, on Nudge, Richard Shotton and I explore the behavioural science behind Amazon Prime. 

We look at the sunk-cost fallacy and pennies-a-day effect to explain why so many are irrationally loyal to Amazon Prime. 

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Today’s sources:

Arkes, H. R., & Blumer, C. (1985). The psychology of sunk cost. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 35(1), 124–140.

Gourville, J. T. (1998). Pennies-a-day: The effect of temporal reframing on transaction evaluation. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(4), 395–403.

Gourville, J. T., & Soman, D. (1998). Payment depreciation: The behavioral effects of temporally separating payments from consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 25(2), 160–174.

Roth, S., Robbert, T., & Straus, L. (2015). On the sunk-cost effect in economic decision-making: A meta-analytic review. Business Research, 8(1), 99–138.