48. 4 More Very Human Things

A few Blogs ago (Blog 40, a classic!), we went through a list of 10 common psychological biases.

Due to its rip-roaring success (well, it got more than the usual 7 views at least), I thought we could do 10 more.

I then started writing 10 more and… well, didn’t get bored per se (I did, I got a little bit bored), but as we started to go into slightly more detail this time, I concluded that in the interest of making everyone’s lives a little easier, we should cut this list down to 4.

Whereas the first 10 where basically a rip off of Gurwinder Bhogal’s excellent Twitter thread, these are stolen borrowed from a couple of different episodes of Modern Wisdom (this one and this one) with behavioural scientist Richard Shotton.

Let’s crack on.

1. Labour Illusion: We value things more if we think a lot of work has gone into it.

There was a study done at the University of Southern California, where a group of property searching participants were given a list of 10 houses to review.

The group were split into two, and told 2 different stories about how this list was pulled together.

• The 1st half were told that the list was generated automatically after the estate agent clicked a few buttons on a computer, and took less than an hour.

• The 2nd half were told that the estate agent manually generated the list, and took nine hours to do so.

They were then asked to evaluate the quality of the estate agent.

The results?

Correct, although the list of houses were exactly the same, the 2nd group rated the estate agent’s ability 36% higher.

We value things more if we think a lot of work has gone into it.

It’s why Dyson talk about the 5,127 prototypes that they created, or why Skyscanner use a fake progress bar when ‘searching’ for flights (yep!), or why I’m going to claim this blog took 128 hours to write.

In terms of the end result, it doesn’t actually matter, but the apparent effort involved gives a higher perception of quality.

And that’s always needed on this website... Labour Illusion.

2. Framing: How we word something impacts how it’s perceived

Back over to the US for another study, this time at the University of Washington.

Here, a load of people, across 5 different groups, were shown the same video of two cars crashing into each other.

All the information they received was the same, other than one word: the verb that was used to describe the crash.

Group 1 received the most severe word, and Group 5 received the least severe word:

• Group 1: The cars smashed into each other

• Group 2: The cars collided into each other

• Group 3: hit

• Group 4: bumped

• Group 5: contacted

Each person was then asked to estimate the speed of the car.

As we may have possibly guessed, there was a pretty significant variance in the answers.

On average, Group 1 guessed 40 miles per hour. With the softer and softer language, the results of each group got gradually slower, with Group 5 guessing 31.8 miles per hour.

Although everyone saw the exact same footage, there was a 27% variance in terms of the speed estimate.

Another example that demonstrates this bias is if we were think of the following question:

Are we more likely to buy a product that’s 20% fat, or 80% fat free?

Unless we’re on a serious bulk, then although it means the exact same thing, the latter one is probably far more appealing.

How we frame something slightly... no, massively, influences how it's perceived. Framing.

3. Pratfall Effect: Our perception of people improves after they make a slight mistake

‘Slight’ is the key term here. For clarity, we’re not talking about major fuck ups.

A classic example of when we see this bias in action is with presentations.

If someone is overly slick and overly polished, it can be impressive to witness. However, we don’t always completely resonate with, or warm to them.

On the other hand, if someone is a bit more rough and ready, it humanises them. We can relate to their flaws, and as such, often tend to like them more.

Another study coming up. This time from 1966 (exactly, when England won the World Cup, come on!!!). The researcher has a room full of participants, and puts on an incredibly hard quiz.

Unknown to anyone else, he gives all the answers to one person. Naturally, this person smashes it, and gets 92% right to win by miles.

The participants are then split into two groups and shown a video of the quiz.

• Group 1 watch the video.

• Group 2 watch the same video. However, with an additional 30 seconds added on. In these 30 seconds, the quiz winner ‘accidentally’ spills a coffee down himself.

They’re then asked to rate the quiz winner’s likeability.

The results?

Group 1 rate the bloke as fairly likeable. Not bad. Though Group 2 rated him on average between 40-45% more appealing.

Possibly a little counter-intuitive this one, but it makes sense.

If we’re being honest, we can sometimes find perfection annoying. Probably because it makes us feel comparatively worse about ourselves.

On the flip side, other people’s mishaps can appease our own flawed existence.

Mistakes are humanisign.

Oops, accidental typo.

The Pratfall Effect.

4. Precision Effect: The more precise a figure, the more likely we are to believe it

If I asked you, “Did my last blog get 10 reads, or 13 reads?” what would you think?

Well, you’d probably firstly think neither, as it sounds like a gross over-exaggeration.

But that aside, per this rule, you’re more likely to think the latter.

The rationale behind this one is that in life, we quickly learn that if someone says something in more vague round terms, they’re often just guessing.

Whereas if we say something more precisely, it’s often from a position of knowledge.

For example, If I said there were 513 studies done that demonstrated this bias, that would sound pretty convincing. Though if I said there were 500 studies done that demonstrated this bias, it wouldn’t be as believable.

As such, the argument is that we’re conditioned to use the cue of a precise number to judge the credibility and accuracy of the claim.

Again, if we hoover on back to James Dyson from earlier, they don’t say over 5,000 prototypes, they say 5,127.

The more precise a number is, the more likely we are to believe it. The Precision Effect.

And there we have it. Blog 48. 4 more human biases. 1121 words. 6236 characters. Precisely.

Thank you for reading x