Today and every day we are the targets of salespeople, marketers, advertisers, fundraisers and (heaven knows) politicians trying to persuade us to buy something, do something or think a certain way.
Persuasion: Empirical Evidence
We provide a selective survey of empirical evidence on the effects as well as the drivers of persuasive communication. We consider persuasion directed at consumers, voters, donors, and investors. We organize our review around four questions. First, to what extent does persuasion affect the behavior of each of these groups? Second, what models best capture the response to persuasive communication? Third, what are persuaders' incentives, and what limits their ability to distort communications? Finally, what evidence exists on the way persuasion affects equilibrium outcomes in economics and politics?
Signaling theory in entrepreneurial fundraising and crowdfunding research
Researchers often employ signaling theory to explain the effect of entrepreneurial communication on fundraising success. This focus on signaling can lead researchers to overlook alternative explana...
Jessica Livingston – Why Startups Need to Focus on Sales, Not Marketing
The most important thing an early-stage startup should know about marketing is rather counterintuitive: that you probably shouldn’t be doing anything you’d use the term “marketing
History of Successful Boycotts | Ethical Consumer
These examples of successful boycotts show the big an impact this campaign tactic can have.
Persuasion Index: A Theory-Guided Framework for Persuasion Analysis
Identifying persuasive rhetorical cues is critical across domains, from detecting information manipulation and improving AI safety to advancing public health communication. We propose Persuasion...
AIDA model | Marketing | Research Starters | EBSCO Research
<p>The AIDA model is a marketing framework that outlines the stages consumers typically go through when making a purchasing decision: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Developed in the late 19th century by American marketer Elias St. Elmo Lewis and later refined by Edward Strong in the 1920s, this model aims to guide marketers in capturing potential buyers' attention and leading them toward a purchase. </p> <p>In the Attention stage, marketers employ engaging strategies to attract consumers, often using eye-catching visuals or intriguing information. Next, the Interest stage focuses on maintaining that attention through memorable content or relatable messaging. The Desire stage demonstrates how a product or service fulfills the consumer's needs, often using persuasive techniques like testimonials or demonstrations. Finally, the Action stage prompts the consumer to make a purchase, providing clear instructions on how to proceed.</p> <p>While the AIDA model remains relevant, marketers today may adapt it to incorporate new elements, such as Retention or Satisfaction, reflecting the evolving digital landscape and consumer behavior. Overall, the AIDA model serves as a foundational tool for understanding consumer engagement and facilitating effective marketing strategies.</p>
Opinion | Why Is Behavioral Economics So Popular? (Published 2018)
The recent vogue for this academic field is in part a triumph of marketing.
The marketplace of rationalizations
Recent work in economics has rediscovered the importance of belief-based utility for understanding human behaviour. Belief ‘choice’ is subject to an important constraint, however: people can only bring themselves to believe things for which they can find rationalizations. When preferences for similar beliefs are widespread, this constraint generates rationalization markets, social structures in which agents compete to produce rationalizations in exchange for money and social rewards. I explore the nature of such markets, I draw on political media to illustrate their characteristics and behaviour, and I highlight their implications for understanding motivated cognition and misinformation.
Effective Altruism’s Bait-and-Switch: From Global Poverty To AI Doomerism
The Effective Altruism movement Effective Altruism (EA) is typically explained as a philosophy that encourages individuals to do the “most good” with their resources (money, skills). Its “effective…
The Power of Effective Agenda-Setting — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation (V2)
Tom Kalil Renaissance Philanthropy believes in the power of effective agenda-setting. In this Q&A, Tom Kalil discusses what we mean by that, how agenda-setting can create positive, self-fulfilling prophesies, and the role of field strategists in agenda-setting.
Save More Today or Tomorrow: The Role of Urgency in Precommitment Design
To encourage farsighted behaviors, previous research suggests that marketers should invite consumers to precommit to adopting these behaviors “later.” However, the authors propose that people will draw different inferences from different types of precommitment offers, and that these inferences can help explain when precommitment is (and is not) effective at increasing adoption of farsighted behaviors. Specifically, the authors theorize that simultaneously offering consumers the opportunity to adopt a farsighted behavior now or later (i.e., offering “simultaneous precommitment”) may signal that the behavior is not urgently recommended; however, offering consumers the opportunity to adopt that behavior immediately and then, only if they decline, inviting them to adopt it later (i.e., offering “sequential precommitment”) may signal just the opposite. In a multisite field experiment (N = 5,196), the authors find that simultaneously giving consumers the chance to increase their savings now or later reduced retirement savings. Two preregistered lab studies (N = 5,080) show that simultaneous precommitment leads people to infer that taking action is not urgently recommended, and such inferences predict less adoption of recommended behaviors. Importantly, offering sequential precommitment increases inferred urgency, predicting greater adoption. Together, this research advances knowledge about the limits and potential of precommitment.
Buy wisely
Whenever I buy things I try to prioritize cost per use. Sometimes I consider other priorities such as cost per smile, cost per thrill, cost per externality, ...
Brands using AI-generated influencers to promote products on social media
Investigation finds AI content that purports to show genuine customers, prompting calls for greater transparency
Add these 4 words to your vocabulary right now, experts say: They can make you more influential at work
Incorporating a handful of simple words into your vocabulary can make you more persuasive, according to a Wharton professor, a Harvard study and more.
A Generalizable Scale of Propensity to Plan: The Long and the Short of Planning for Time and for Money
Abstract. Planning has pronounced effects on consumer behavior and intertemporal choice. We develop a six-item scale measuring individual differences in pr
