11 cognitive biases that influence marketing and that you never imagined
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 10:19 am
Do you know what cognitive biases are and how they can influence your marketing? We tend to believe that human beings are totally rational, but that is not entirely the case. We are predictably irrational. We make emotional decisions and justify them with reasons. Our mind always takes "shortcuts" when processing information and this can work in our favor or against us. Below, I show you some of the most significant ones:
Confirmation bias
We only pay attention to data that supports our ideas and are all life whatsapp number south africa skeptical of information that contradicts us. This is related to the "attribution bias" in which we believe that we are intelligent and others have no idea. For example, this is seen a lot in politics and with ideologies. After all, our human behavior is related to that of "tribes" (also urban ones).
Halo effect
We confuse appearance with essence. There is an "illusory correlation" even though there is no data to confirm it. The positive trait or success tends to spread. For example, the success of the Apple iPod positively influenced the launch of the iPhone. In personal brands, we can see how a physically attractive person is associated with someone who is successful (even though they have nothing to do with it). Another example can be seen in the case of Susan Boyle, who, despite having little physical attractiveness, was prejudged without knowing her brilliant voice.
Framing effect
Depending on how you express yourself, we tend to draw certain conclusions or others. For example, if you say that a medicine "has a 90% cure rate" it will be more successful than if you say that it "has a 10% risk rate." That's why copywriting is so important.
Decoy effect
This is a curious fact and it happens, for example, with online prices. If we have three options, we will choose the expensive one. If we only have two options, we will choose the cheapest one. There is an anchoring effect with the reference we see.
Forer effect or Barnum effect
It tells us that we tend to treat general descriptions as if they were personalized. For example, if someone writes a claim saying that "it's the best for your rest", you might think it's something personalized for you, but in reality, it's something written for everyone and it feels personalized with the word "your".
We don't like risk and, therefore, we generally prefer to opt for decisions that are within our comfort zone. We opt for the status quo. We value what we have more than what we could achieve, even if this sometimes means losing opportunities.
Confirmation bias
We only pay attention to data that supports our ideas and are all life whatsapp number south africa skeptical of information that contradicts us. This is related to the "attribution bias" in which we believe that we are intelligent and others have no idea. For example, this is seen a lot in politics and with ideologies. After all, our human behavior is related to that of "tribes" (also urban ones).
Halo effect
We confuse appearance with essence. There is an "illusory correlation" even though there is no data to confirm it. The positive trait or success tends to spread. For example, the success of the Apple iPod positively influenced the launch of the iPhone. In personal brands, we can see how a physically attractive person is associated with someone who is successful (even though they have nothing to do with it). Another example can be seen in the case of Susan Boyle, who, despite having little physical attractiveness, was prejudged without knowing her brilliant voice.
Framing effect
Depending on how you express yourself, we tend to draw certain conclusions or others. For example, if you say that a medicine "has a 90% cure rate" it will be more successful than if you say that it "has a 10% risk rate." That's why copywriting is so important.
Decoy effect
This is a curious fact and it happens, for example, with online prices. If we have three options, we will choose the expensive one. If we only have two options, we will choose the cheapest one. There is an anchoring effect with the reference we see.
Forer effect or Barnum effect
It tells us that we tend to treat general descriptions as if they were personalized. For example, if someone writes a claim saying that "it's the best for your rest", you might think it's something personalized for you, but in reality, it's something written for everyone and it feels personalized with the word "your".
We don't like risk and, therefore, we generally prefer to opt for decisions that are within our comfort zone. We opt for the status quo. We value what we have more than what we could achieve, even if this sometimes means losing opportunities.