Until the morning of July 5, 2011, I had considered myself a good and independent thinker. I tested well in school and earned honors from a challenging college. In the years after I became so captivated by the subject of thinking that during the months while I was writing my most recent book, Unthinking, [...]
This really happened. Just after New Years Day last year, a 29 year-old British man leaped before he looked. Had he looked at the ground six feet below where he was perched on a building foundation, he would have spotted a six-inch construction nail, its point facing him. But he jumped, and landed with such [...]
View Post Apple logo, Apple logo exposure, Buyer Behavior, consumer behavior, Consumer Psychology, Death of Michael Jackson, Expectancy Theory, Fentanyl, IBM, New Years Day, Nocebo, Nocebo Effect, Persuasion, Placebo Effect, Predictably Irrational, Science Daily, Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, Tom Clancy, Unthinking, Victoria SecretDr. Harry Beckwith, Jr. feared the health dangers of microwave ovens and most drugs other than aspirin, and disapproved of all cold cereals. “The same nutritional value as a Sears’ catalog” he once huffed. This same man, however, smoked a pack of Winston cigarettes every day and followed a diet heavy in butter, eggs, [...]
View Post consumer behavior, decision-making, irrationality, motivation, Nike, Unthinking, Why We Buy(Author’s note: One week after this post first appeared, Nate Montana, son of the famous former pro quarterback Joe Montana, announced that he was transferring from Notre Dame to the University of Montana.) Want to read something funny? Check your local phone book. Several studies have confirmed that we are unusually inclined to choose a [...]
View Post consumer behavior, decision-making, implied egosim, irrationality, Marketing psychology, Name Letter Effect, Nate Montana, Stanford University