The Choice Factory: 25 behavioural biases that influence what we buy

I love behavioral economics. I grew up with the concepts and find them to play incredibly vital roles in all the fields I work in. So, I’ve been delighted to see increasing coverage of the field (as well as neuroscience, neuromarketing, etc.). From the perspective of a marketer, Richard Shotton’s The Choice Factory is the best I’ve come across, and it’s not particularly close. It’s a tremendously robust and impressive effort, offering abundant opportunities for real implementation.The key reasons why I think this offering stands apart:• There are plenty of good surveys on the market of the cognitive biases and irrationalities inherent to all of us that have critical impacts on out decision-making. Some are even more comprehensive than this book in merely listing every behavioral bias researchers have investigated. But when you combine the breadth and the depth here, The Choice Factory is best in class. It devotes substantial attention to fully 25 biases. Each is given comprehensive treatment and, in each instance, practical applications and caveats are addressed in detail. That’s impressive coverage.• The variety of biases the author discusses runs the gamut and does a particularly good job of addressing the key psychological elements that most consumers confront as they go about their buyer journey. Biases related to mood; to price; to social context; to folks’ perceptions of others and so on so forth. Moreover, the breadth of the biases covered is outstanding and corresponds with an entire buying cycle, in some cases, multiple buying cycles.• Nice mix in covering some of the biases that are perhaps more familiar e.g., overconfidence, confirmation bias, price relatively, primacy, etc., with some that are less well known and at times counterintuitive such as the pratfall effect.• One of the best gifts Mr. Shotton offers is a succinct yet probing look at the evidence underlying the case for each bias and indeed, if the evidence isn’t convincing, or is being marshalled in a way it ought not be, that’s made clear. Indeed, an entire chapter is devoted to the “replicability crisis” – an alarming tendency over the years in which future researchers have been unable to replicate the initial findings of their colleagues.• Evidence also plays a strong role in what is a tremendous organizational structure of the book. The book is written at the reader, with the reader the main character at the beginning of each chapter, assuming the reader is going through an ordinary day, setting the common scenes where each bias has a chance to play itself out. Mr. Shotton then describes the behaviors that constitute the bias and then moves to discuss the historical and contemporary evidence.• Importantly and refreshingly, Mr. Shotton can speak from firsthand experience, having conducted an extensive amount of experimentation, replete with large sample sizes and statistically robust methodologies with his colleagues, so he’s able to truly bring his own credibly to bear. Next, Mr. Shotton will often discuss the underlying factors that the evidence suggests produces the bias. Where the evidence doesn’t tell a clear story, that’s made clear. Indeed, this is also an outstanding book to get some deep insight on sound experimentation method. In several of the chapters, Mr. Shotton discusses the nature of what optimal research into many of these biases ought to look like and compares the optimal to what’s actually been done.• Following the research discussion, Mr. Shotton moves directly to practical applications and they’re dynamite. Differing from some books where the application section is just too simple, in each chapter, Mr. Shotton discusses in detail at least three mechanisms via which a marketer might be able to make use of the bias at issue and the relative effectiveness and potential pitfalls for each of those approaches.• Bear in mind then, that this book is presenting you, the marketer, with 75 potential new tools to use.• Excellent job of noting when certain biases bear close relationships to one another and how some interact with others. Also excellent in describing the necessary conditions that must be in place for a bias to manifest itself in a way that’s practically relevant even at all.• I don’t intend this as criticism, but it should be noted that the examples in the book do tilt heavily toward B2C as opposed to B2B. But that’s to be expected, given that cognitive biases, while a business-wide and societal issue in the sense that we all suffer for them, are first and foremost about individual thinking.• The author calls a spade a spade and I agree with him. He comes down on the side of “watch what customers do” as opposed to listening religiously to what they say. There’s some excellent coverage of how to design surveys that are particularly effective in flushing out an honest individual answer and surveys your firm brings to market ought to be in conformity. The same is true of the principles shared in respect to customer observation.• As those who know the field will know, there are those who take ethical issue with markers utilizing behavioral “nudges”. For a whole bunch of reasons – most notably, that’s it’s well proven that folks who make the effort to become educated about how their own minds work and to be self-aware are much tougher customers in terms of being nudged, so long as nothing truly outlandish is done, I see no ethical problem. That’s especially true because, wanting repeat customers, companies are going to work hard to give all buyers an outstanding customer experience, whether the purchase was inspired by a nudge or not.• What’s genuinely appreciated is Mr. Shotton devoting an entire chapter of the book to a serious treatment of ethical issues. He concludes, I think sensibly, that behavioral nudges are every bit as ethical as any other type of marketing that appeals to emotion and persuasion. He also argues sensibly that there is some inherent self-regulation; customers who feel swindled make for dangerous enemies.This book covers a ton of valuable ground in a power packed 202 pages. I strongly recommend it to marketers. These are tools that can be implemented immediately, blending right into ongoing campaigns. And I appreciate – and suspect you will too – that the author isn’t preaching here. He’s not making claims that employing these techniques will save bad businesses selling bad products. He sensibly argues that marketers ought to be using all the legitimate tools at their disposal, and these are nothing if not legitimate.**If nothing else, there’s simply no downside to marketers understanding the mental processes their customers are undergoing. And if you’re smart, you’ll also use this book as a chance to check your own self-awareness. We all succumb to the biases mentioned here sometimes, but staying disciplined, vigilant and aware helps a great deal. While offering so much more, The Choice Factory is worth its price just in what it teaches readers about the way their own mind works.Mr. Shotton, as it happens, will be in New York on June 4 speaking about the book and I’m excited to attend and get to meet him in person. Bravo for a wonderful offering.

This was a fascinating book that was easy to read and hard to forget. Each concept is introduced with a great story and clear research to prove its existence. I am currently using multiple concepts from the book to help grow my business significantly while impressing my co-workers by seeming way smarter than I actually am. I also recommend the books in the additional reading section to round out the material.

In the age of infobesity, content shock, and choice paralysis – getting solid advice on any subject can be extremely difficult. Marketers today are obsessed with brand purpose, shiny-automated-dashboards, Big Data & artificial intelligence. Each business hoping to differentiate, to be the first to discover and use “the next big thing in marketing.”Marketers and advertisers, like everyone picking out their next “self-help” book, are AWASH with options. But, if we reduce the complexity of choice down to a single element – cognitive bias – we can start to appreciate the genius behind The Choice Factory.The author is careful to point out that there is not a GRAND THEORY of advertising and marketing. People make decisions for a variety of reasons – so why not focus in on that moment of decision; what forces compel us to CHOOSE one thing over another?Shotton boils consumer behavior down to a collection of 25 cognitive biases that, for this book, makeup the bulk of decision making. Cognitive biases effect the way we make choices, the products we choose to buy, and more importantly, biases are the foundation for our beliefs about the world.By incorporating real studies from the fields of psychology and sociology, and case studies of brands that have used these biases, or failed to use them, “The Choice Factory” is a useful, inspirational, well-crafted book that every self-respecting marketer and advertiser needs to read.PS - I wanted to give the book 5 Stars, but I stopped when I saw EVERY review has been 5 Stars. There is cognitive bias from the book itself, at work here - The Pratfall Effect - seeing all 5's might lead someone to believe the reviews are paid for - seeing a 4 makes the book real - makes it seem like Shotton isn't perfect (which he is) - but he's worth a chance (which he isn't. . . it's a sure bet) -->

One of the best marketing books I've read in a long time! As a brand marketer for 28 years, the lack of authentic customer insights continues to evade so many fast-moving marketing strategies -- even in this golden age of in-depth data and analytics. It takes time to stop, listen and uncover these behavioral insights found in The Choice Factory. This is a return and a reminder to embrace the most fundamental need for true customer insights on any communications program.

The book is filled with actionable advice and is pretty light read. The author also examines many famous ad campaigns and contradicts common misconceptions. One particular moment that stuck with me is when he pointed out an issue in Wikipedia's messaging because it was so relatable and the author backed up his argument, so well with science. My favorite aspect was probably when the author conducted his own informal marketing experiments to test out the applications of behavioral science in marketing.Highly recommend.

This book is an excellent and immediately understandable summary of the most critical behavioral traits that we all demonstrate. It's perfectly concise in getting to the important stuff, providing the right amount of detail for the generalist who doesn't want to wade through jargon-filled academic textbooks or journals (without dumbing anything down or missing essential details).If you are involved in business, either as a customer or entrepreneur, you need this book. It's an intriguing read that will leave you well versed in the basics of psychology as it relates to the choice-making we face every day.

This is a remarkable book that stands well above others in behavioural science. Writing style is very engaging and approachable. Written in bite-sized pieces it weaves together many themes across many bites without breeding confusion. This is skilful. Each chapter leads into the next. This is also skilful.The manual hammers home what works, why, when and for whom; and also what doesn’t work, why, when and for whom. There is a lot of how sprinkled in, with an admission that the how is the art of trial and error. This is a great homage to the human aspects of behavioural science and, perhaps, the greatest praise that can be given for Shotten’s book and the challenge and reward that it sets for its readers.Buy it.

Great book if you have an interest in Marketing, or curious behind the psychology of how and why we make the choices we do when buyingBroken down into 25 easy and quick chapters to read, each one is fully researched and has case studies backing up what is taught. Its easy to read and explain in an entertaining manner. If you want a more in depth understanding there are other books on the subject. However as an introduction to the subject, it can't be beat.

muy bien rpeparado y envuelto genial!

I have a lot of interest in behaviour science, cognitive biases and psychology. I have read most of the popular books. But I have struggled to put them to use. In my life as a marketer and product and business leader.With Choice Factory, I know much better now. It has 25 small chapters covering one cognitive bias each. Most of the biases are well known. I knew the theory and the research. But this book gives you relevant examples from the marketing world. And tips on how to put them to use.I am part of DTC jewellery brand. Many of the chapters are not relevant or not useful. Some are weak or not fully convincing. But there are enough gems in there. I usually highlight when I read. But this time I made notes. Of stuff I am going to use. And I have atleast 8-10 good ideas. That’s usually more than what you can get in a good book.Disclosure - The book was slightly expensive and I waited for the price to fall. For more than a year. I was such an idiot.Some of my favourites are the chapters on Goodharts Law, Pratfall Effect, Fundamental Attribution Error, Variability, Danger of claimed data, negative social proof, distinctiveness, the curse of knowledge, mood, habit and a couple more.Will finish this review with this amazing quote from David Ogilvy which says so much about biases.“People dont think about how they feel. People dont say what they think. People dont do what they say”Must read for everyone who works in the consumer space.

A truly fantastic read.