Psychology and marketing: how biases influence buyer choice

The Barnum effect is the belief in vague predictions and descriptions, an interest in information that relates directly to the individual and illustrates them in the best light. This fairly common characteristic, focused on the individual, is also known as the ‘personal approval bias’: consumers love to be complimented. The Barnum effect is a cognitive bias in which people believe that general information applicable to most people is specifically tailored to them. Tests on social media and websites, daily horoscopes, personalised recommendations on platforms such as Facebook, Spotify and Netflix are classic examples of the Barnum effect. This is also the most effective conversion tool. Marketers at Fincraft Capital company note that the conversion rate of leads who filled out ‘question-answer’ forms and came to the site after testing is 38%.

The cheerleader effect is the group attractiveness effect or the friend effect. A cognitive bias in which individuals or objects appear more attractive (by 1.5–2.0%) when presented in a group. The cheerleader effect is a direct consequence of the habit of generalising and averaging characteristics: groups of people, images, events. This is why advertisements so often use photographs of models with different types of appearance.

Add intrigue to the product you offer. Curiosity is a powerful behavioural stimulus and lies at the heart of human behaviour. The curiosity effect is an impulse or desire to explore, observe or gather information, especially when the subject is new or interesting. Marketing guru David Ogilvy created a million-dollar story. An advertisement for Hathaway shirts featured a mysterious man with an aristocratic appearance and an eye patch, whose unusual image immediately aroused interest. It was this detail — the eye patch — that caught the curiosity of readers. There was no answer in the ad text. Only a subtle hint. A week later, all Hathaway shirts in the city were sold out.

Curiosity prompts us to click on an ad or publication. But! Don't confuse clickbait — a malicious form of curiosity — with creativity in marketing. According to academic George Lowenstein, people become curious when there is a gap in their knowledge. We dislike uncertainty and are more likely to remember things that have been interrupted (for example, we return to an article with an interesting headline). And most importantly, we are afraid of missing something. That is why advertising so often aims to stimulate emotional reactions.