Holier than thou
Richard Shotton and MichaelAaron Flicker always make for a marvellous meeting of minds. This time they were sharing 3 lessons consumer research can learn from behavioural science, including the “Holier Than Thou” effect:
“Especially in morally charged areas, don't ask people what they would do, like how much they would donate to a charity. Instead, ask people what they think others would do [...] asking people what others would do was a more accurate guide to behavior than asking people what they would do.”
If you haven’t got time for the whole shebang, jump to 35:34 for the 4 min summary.
The great disinvitation
Since 1975 there’s been a 70% decline in adults who say they regularly host at home. So says Derek Thompson in his latest missive on the great disinvitation.
My word count isn’t large enough for all the highlights, so I’ll leave you with this little amuse bouche and you’ll just have to promise me you’ll read the full thing :-)
“For 200 years, people have worried that machines would make human labor unnecessary [...] But machines in the last half century have accomplished something stranger. They have made other people less necessary to our leisure. Every generation has acquired better ways to entertain itself without leaving the house. The result is a peculiar triumph of modern abundance: We have built a world in which being alone has never been easier, more comfortable, or more fun.”
“An immediate 85% decrease in bird droppings”
To make sure you’re fixing the root cause of the problem rather than just prodding the topsoil, try giving Sakichi Toyoda’s ‘Five Whys’ system a whirl. Via the Trott that is Dave:
“At present we jump straight to conclusions and miss out the gradual, logical process [...] we see answers as strength and questions as weakness [...] As Albert Einstein said: ‘If I had an hour to solve a problem I would spend 55 minutes on the problem and 5 minutes on the solution.’ Because if you identify the problem correctly the solution will be simple and effective. But if you identify the problem wrongly no solution can work.”
Diary of a Diary of a CEO
The folk over at audits.com have… you guessed it… been auditing. They’ve pointed their abacuses at The Diary of a CEO and analysed how the thumbnails, titles, topics and guests have changed since 2020. Bad news sells, as they say…
“Between the first and last 12 months, fear went from 0.6 to 1.9, authority from 1.5 to 2.5, urgency from near zero to 1.3, contrarianism from 0.4 to 1.8 and the curiosity gap from 2.1 to 2.7. The dominant mechanism moved from the success story (21% of 2021 titles, 1% of 2025 titles) to the warning (0% in 2021, 24% in every year from 2024).”
And finally…
Maya Barkai has been cataloguing pedestrian traffic lights from around the world. Andorra’s looking very jazzzzzy.
Words I never thought I’d write, but… The Pittsburgh Parallel Parking Championship looks like an absolute hoot.
Apologies to all my friends who I can’t host this weekend. I’ll be too busy trying to achieve the inner peace of these sea otters.
Bon weekend,
Fran