Loss aversion, priming effect, Baader-Meinhof phenomenon: we have selected 10 psychological effects that marketers actively use in the fight for our attention.
Have you ever wondered why you bought yet another item on sale for “half price” that you may never wear? Or why do people spend half their salary on a new version of a smartphone, although they were quite happy with the old one? Following in the footsteps of publications for professional marketers, we share with you ten marketing “hooks” that we fall for again and again in the ocean of the consumer market.
Priming effect
Probably everyone has ever played a game in which one person says a word, and the other immediately responds with the first association that comes to mind? Games such as Alias are based on a similar principle. As a rule, the use of such stable associations in the game as: “Tula …” - gingerbread, “last …” - bell works flawlessly.
It's kind of like programming. You receive one signal and it affects how you respond to the next one. Psychology Today magazine cites a study of two groups of people reading the words “yellow” followed by either “sky” or “banana.” Because people have a semantic connection between a fruit and its color, the yellow-banana group recognizes the word banana faster than the yellow-sky group recognizes sky.
How does marketing apply this? For example, using this method to select the background of an Internet site can help site visitors remember key information about a brand—and perhaps even influence their purchasing behavior.
This has been tested previously. In a study conducted by Naomi Mandel and Eric Johnson, researchers changed the background and design of a website to see how it might affect consumers' product choices. Participants were asked to choose between two products of the same category (for example, between Toyota and Lexus). The researchers found:
“..visitors who were primed for money (the background of the website was green and depicted dollars) took longer to view pricing information than those who were primed for security (the background was red-orange with flames) . "Similarly, consumers who were primed for comfort when choosing a sofa took longer to view information about the comfort of the sofa (the website was designed in blue with light clouds) than those who were primed for money (a green background with dollars)."
Ways to overcome immaturity for an adult
There are not many self-critical people among infantiles. But if an immature person realizes that something is wrong with him, this is commendable. You can start the path to an adult and responsible life with the following steps.
Make independent decisions
There is no need to wait for your mom or spouse to approve your plans. Make your own choice, trying to correctly assess the possible benefits and potential risks.
Physically separate from parents
Many people believe that if finances are tight, then living with your parents at 30 is normal. We hasten to disappoint you: this is by no means true. Starting to live your own life means taking a step into the unknown. But those young people who still decide to make changes do not regret the money spent.
Photo by Mike Kotsch on Unsplash
Having moved away from their parents, they begin to understand: financial well-being depends only on themselves. And they often make better career decisions than those who continue to live in their parents’ nest for decades.
Arrange your life to your liking
Hearing your own desires and following them is not as simple a task as it seems at first glance. Infants have a weak psyche, often filled with introjects - ideas once learned from other people.
For example, a child often hears from a school teacher that it is impossible to earn a lot in an honest way. In adulthood, he may forget about these words, but the idea itself (introject) will continue to exist in his unconscious.
Photo by Shubham Sharan on Unsplash
Separating introjects from personal desires often requires regular and high-quality psychotherapy. But it’s quite possible to do something yourself. You can start listening to yourself in small things: what movie would you like to watch? What would you like to choose for dinner - sushi or noodles? Then you can move on to more serious and fateful decisions.
Learn to stand your ground
Not only capricious young ladies or young men, but also quiet modest ones are infantiles. Such people are a real “gold mine” for employers. They will not say a word against you, even if they are asked for the tenth time to stay late at work without additional pay.
Slack at work
You should not assume that only people of narrow minds argue. This is actually true - but only when it comes to unimportant things. When it comes to your life and personal comfort, insisting on your own means demonstrating a mature position.
The “inner child” lives in every adult; and manifestations of infantilism can also occur in quite mature and respectable people. But in any case, it is important not to succumb to the influence of childishness, feeling like a constantly dissatisfied and disappointed child. After all, the quality of our life, as well as the ability to be psychologically mature, is always in our hands.
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, or frequency illusion
Has it ever happened to you that, having heard about something for the first time, you then begin to see it everywhere in everyday life? You can thank the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon for this. This kind of thing starts happening after you encounter something for the first time and then you start noticing it appearing around you. Suddenly you see advertisements for a certain product every time you watch TV. And when you come to the store and walk along the counter, you accidentally discover the same item. And ALL your friends already have this product.
Strange, isn't it? This phenomenon, which also has another name - frequency illusion, is caused by two processes:
“First, selective attention dies when you are startled by a new word, thing, or idea. You then unconsciously keep an eye out for that object and end up finding it surprisingly often. The second process is confirmation, which convinces you that each new appearance of a product in your life is further evidence of your impression that the thing has acquired overnight omnipresence.”
For marketers, this phenomenon is extremely important. Once you start to notice their brand, they want to help you see it “around the world.” And they begin to send you targeted messages by email, display targeted advertising, so that you can once again make sure that you will no longer be able to escape from their unobtrusive attention...
Causes
According to experts, most problems in adult life come from childhood : the flaws of parental education haunt a person for the rest of his life. Infantility in a man can occur for the following reasons:
- Excessive parental care . Most often this happens in families with an only child: parents surround him with excessive care and attention, which is why the child grows up selfish.
- Mother is the head of the family . Since childhood, a boy sees the secondary role of his father and copies this type of behavior.
- The desire to be forever young. A man likes entertainment and consumerism - this stops the process of growing up, which is why the infant feels like a carefree teenager.
- Lack of masculine position. Most often found in dysfunctional families where the child was raised by a mother or grandmother. Women are not able to give a boy proper education so that he grows up to be a real man.
Infantile man
Decoy effect
The most common use of this effect is in a pricing model - one price option is intentionally included to encourage you to choose the most expensive option.
In the famous TED talk “Are we in control of our own decisions?” Dan Ariely gives an example of an ad from The Economist outlining subscription package options for that magazine. Here's what they suggested:
- Internet subscription: $59
- Print subscription: $125
- Online and print subscriptions: $125
Crazy, isn't it? You can get just the print version of the magazine and the online+print package for the same price. Why are they offering this?
Dan Ariely also asked this question, but when he contacted The Economist, he, of course, did not receive a direct answer.
So he decided to conduct his own study involving one hundred students. He gave them the price packages described above and asked which one they would like to buy. When all three options were presented to the students, the students chose the combined subscription - this was the best deal, wasn't it? But when he eliminated the "pointless" option (a $125 print subscription), students preferred the cheapest option.
It turned out that the middle option wasn't so useless - it gave students a benchmark for judging how "good" the combined option was and convinced them to pay more for that option.
So, to achieve his goal, the seller can add a third option to the two main options, thereby increasing the chances of purchasing the product that he himself is primarily interested in selling...
Loss aversion
Loss avoidance, or “loss aversion,” means that once you have something, you really don't want to lose it.
When Daniel Kahneman studied this concept, study participants were given mugs, chocolate, or nothing. Participants were then asked to make a choice: if they received an item, they could trade it, and if they did not receive anything, they could choose one of two options for the items.
What was the result? About half of the participants who started without any items chose mugs, but 86% of people who received mugs from the beginning were "stuck" with them, not wanting to sell them.
Morality? People don't like to lose what they have already received.
This effect is successfully used by marketers. For example, providing a free version of an IT product for a certain period of time. After the free use period has expired, the application may be deleted if the buyer does not pay for further use.
Reciprocity
In Dr. Robert Cialdini's book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, the concept of "reciprocity" is presented in a very simple formula - if someone does something for you, you will naturally want to do something for you. the answer for him.
If you've ever received chewing gum along with your bill at a cafe or restaurant, you've been a victim of reciprocity. According to Cialdini, when waiters bring a customer a check without chewing gum, this will certainly affect the tip amount as a reflection of the perception of the quality of service. With one piece of gum, tips increase by 3.3%. Two mints? Tips can increase up to 20%!
There are many ways to take advantage of reciprocity in marketing. At the same time, the seller should not go broke by giving you valuables for free. A bonus can be anything - from a branded T-shirt to an exclusive book, free desktop wallpaper, or a collection of tips on some issue. Even something as simple as a handwritten card or note can be the key to establishing reciprocity. It is enough for the seller to give you a free and, most likely, unnecessary thing before asking for something more tangible in return.
Cons and pros
But despite all the visible disadvantages, this type of guy can also have its advantages. It is worth listing the disadvantages of this genotype once again:
- A guy or man is not capable of taking responsibility for his actions.
- Unadaptability, immaturity in everyday life.
- Inability to cope with problems, including financial ones.
- A man puts himself above all else or blames everyone around for his failures, but does not take any action to change the situation.
- Sexual problems are expressed in restraint, lack of initiative, childishness, frequent changes of partners, or fixation on one’s own person.
- Behavior characteristic of children's relationships is selfishness, touchiness, capriciousness, narcissism.
Infantile men can have a number of advantages:
- A man does not dwell on his problems, he lives life easily and carefree.
- Knows how to enjoy life.
- Often such men speak and reason beautifully.
- They are spontaneous.
- They are flexible in everyday life.
- They are no strangers to romance.
- Their actions can be spontaneous.
- Children love them.
- They have creativity and creativity.
Social influence
Most are already familiar with this concept, but it is too important to be ignored. If you're not familiar with it, the concept of informational social influence (or social proof) is where people tend to accept the beliefs or actions of the group of people they like or trust the most. In other words, it's a "me too" effect. Or the “dance floor” effect - few people want to be the first on the dance floor when the dancing first starts, but as soon as the first few people start dancing, the rest immediately join in.
The simplest way to use social influence is to use social media buttons under posts on blogs and websites. The number of reposts speaks for itself, forcing a new reader to do the same, and the presence of friends in the readers of a page or blog creates an irresistible desire to “join”.
He was raised by a tough mother.
His mother did not stand, indifferently drinking water, while her son chose Kinder for himself. She always made it clear who was the boss in the house, or rather, the mistress.
She suppressed any initiatives of her son and decided everything for him. For disobedience, the mother harshly punished him and demanded that he completely obey her will.
As a result, the boy became infantile and downtrodden. But this is not the worst thing. In particularly advanced cases, such sons grow up to be furious misogynists and maniacs.
Limited
Have you ever bought plane tickets or booked a hotel online and seen a warning message saying “only 3 seats left at this price”? Yes, that's what a deficit is (another concept Dr. Cialdini uses). This principle of psychology goes back to the simple formula of supply and demand: the rarer the opportunity, content or product, the more valuable it is.
In 1975, Stephen Worchel, Jerry Lee, and Akanbi Adewole conducted a study to see how scarcity affects our perceptions. They asked people to rate chocolate chip cookies. One jar contained ten pieces of cookies, and the other only two.
“The rating of cookies from a jar that only had two of them was twice as high as the rating of cookies from another jar. The effect persisted even if the cookies in the jars were the same.”
So when advertising is full of the words “exclusive”, “limited edition” or “latest offer”, ask yourself what attracts you more - the product itself or your unique status as an exclusive owner.
Which women become “victims” of infantilism?
Men with a “childish” character themselves are not against “sticking” to a certain category of women in whom “motherliness” is clearly expressed. Such ladies are ready to groom and cherish their companion day and night, as if he were not a man, but a small child. There are three types of women: child, woman and mommy. So, an infantile man most often connects his life with a woman, mommy, and this is natural, because he is a child. And what is noteworthy is that such tandems are most often observed in Russia.
After all, our women first of all see themselves as mothers. The reasons are quite understandable - living conditions are much worse than those of their European and American “colleagues”, a measure of responsibility, brought up by equally responsible parents. And it is not surprising that when searching for a companion, she pays more attention to male children.
But there is a paradox in this moment - she does not know that her mother is “hiding” in her subconscious. And she absolutely does not want to look for someone who cannot be a “strong shoulder”, support and support. But the fact happened. And it won't be long before she realizes that she made the wrong choice.
Anchor effect
Why is it so hard to resist sales at your favorite clothing store?
This is often due to the anchoring effect—people make decisions based on the first piece of information they receive. So if your favorite store usually sells jeans for $50, but on sale sells them for $35, customers will be delighted. It's easy to feel like, "I'm getting a crazy deal on these jeans!" which is more likely to lead to a purchase. But, for example, if a person usually buys jeans for $20, then this discount will not make such an impression on him.
The anchoring effect is the most important move for marketers: they must set the anchor clearly - indicate the initial sale price, and then indicate the actual sale price next to it and indicate the percentage of savings (preferably in a bright and catchy way).
The desire to play as a sign of infantilism
It should immediately be noted that we are not talking about playfulness in itself, but only about the option when the search for entertainment turns into a primary task for a person, relegating other activities to the background. The worst thing for a person focused exclusively on games and entertainment is boredom.
“Games” and entertainment in this case can be different: passion for computer games, shopping, going to bars with friends, constant purchases of “technical toys”... There is nothing wrong with all these activities, but in his desire for entertainment, the infantile personality loses a sense of proportion and then the desire for eternal games becomes a sign of infantilism.
Verbal effect
According to a study conducted by a team of scientists at the University of Ontario, people are more likely to remember the gist of what someone said rather than specific details. So, when you attend a training session on how to blog better for your business, you're more likely to remember details like "Send your article to someone to edit before publishing" rather than "Send to a Google Doc three working days before publication to colleagues so that they can make edits to your work. Remember to make corrections in “edit mode” so you know what you missed!”
Scientists call this the “verbatim effect,” and it can have a huge impact on how content is perceived. People are known to spend a small amount of time reading online, and on some sites they don't spend more than 15 seconds.
This is why marketers focus on short and catchy headlines. If the title clearly reflects the content of the article, then you will remember the essence of the article much faster, and later you will easily remember its title so that you can find it again on Google.
Types of infantile men
There are three types of male infantilism:
- The first one lives with his mother all his life. For him, she is the main person on the planet. He listens to her, depends heavily on her, and cannot imagine life with another woman. She protects him from unnecessary work, does not allow him to solve problems on his own, does not give him the opportunity to become independent, but he is satisfied with this state of affairs.
- The second one shifts the functions of the mother to the spouse. He does not help her with everyday life, financial support for her family and raising her children. She takes care of him like another child, does routine things for him and tries not to stress him out too much. Sometimes a woman gets tired of carrying an over-aged “baby”, realizes his consumerist attitude towards her and gets divorced.
- The third type of infantile men dreams of recognition of their own superiority. To do this, he chooses a nondescript wife who admires him, his behavior and deeds. He is proud of himself and believes that his woman should do everything for him.
Clustering (grouping)
Humans have a limited amount of short-term memory. Most of us can only remember seven pieces of information at a time (plus or minus two pieces in a given situation).
To deal with this problem, most people tend to group similar pieces of information together. For example, if you had a shopping list of random items, you tend to mentally group the items into certain categories (dairy, meat, etc.) so that you can better remember what was on the list.
This is why marketers pay so much attention to content clustering. Grouping similar topics together—under numbered lists or with different heading sizes—helps us remember information better.
