Blog

16
Apr

Brands! No need to guess your customer’s perception: brand personality test turns Cambridge Analytica methods into something positive

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Personality traits have been used and abused by Cambridge Analytica1, but those traits offer positive benefits – especially when mapped to brands. Personality traits are relatively stable in humans2. They are organized by the Big Five3: extraversion agreeableness conscientiousness emotionality open-mindedness The model owes much to its many critics, each of whom tried to replace […]

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06
Apr

A behavioural science April Fool with The Center For Advanced Hindsight – and knowing where to put the chalk cross

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The excellent behavioural scientists, Ingrid M. Paulin (@iwmelvaer) and Aline Holzwarth (@alineholzwarth), from The Center For Advanced Hindsight (@advncdhindsight) pulled off what looked like a trick, but was really an opportunity to present a serious behavioural science message. April Fools As part of a consortium of behavioral businesses and people, The Hunting Dynasty supported and […]

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06
Mar

Long read: Why do we need behavioural science? Because we’ve mechanised, medicalised, and farmed our way into a way of life we no longer recognise – we are ancient creatures in modern times

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   ‘Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.’   1. An Italian officer Vittorio was under attack. Ethiopian tribesmen had pushed him back up the hill of Daga Roba, near Galla in Ethiopia. They asked him to put down his weapons. He refused. As an Italian army officer and gentlemen explorer he’d got […]

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01
Dec

Choosing the perfect gift

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Giving any gift is better than nothing at all, right? Wrong. An impulsively selected and ill-considered gift may actually damage interpersonal relationships 1,2. So-called miscalibrated gift choice describes the discrepancy in thoughts and expectations of givers and recipients during the gift giving process 3 – with that in mind, here are some tips on how to […]

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23
Nov

The ABC of RCTs

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Nearly 70 years ago, the first ever modern randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in the UK 1. The 6-month long investigation took place in hospitals in London and Middlesex, and tested the efficacy of treatments for pulmonary tuberculosis – streptomycin versus bed rest 2. By the end of the trial, 7% of patients who […]

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23
Nov

Inspiring sustainable behaviour

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I was very honoured to the be the keynote speaker at the ‘Together Towards A low Carbon Future’ Conference run by @ESBGroup & @iiea on the 23rd Nov, 2017, Dublin, Ireland. "Disrupting habitual behaviour is the key to allowing us to make deliberative decisions rather than automatic ones" says @oliverpayne at #TakeCharge2017 Conference on how […]

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22
Aug

The Hunting Dynasty Summer Placements

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July 2017 saw the first round of The Hunting Dynasty summer placements – an opportunity for three outstanding Masters graduates – Lauren, Louise and Neo – to spend a week as part of our team and work on a real-life behavioural science brief. In addition to more or less expected daily tasks in a behavioural […]

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22
May

The smartest choice of all? Teaching organisations to make smarter choices

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Until recently, behavioral insights research has typically focused on developing solutions for public policy problems. It has also been applied to improve marketing and investment decisions. However, there is still a dearth of research on the application of behavioral insights to the field of organizational behavior. The core of organizational behavior research is to understand […]

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02
Dec

The financial sector has motivated but confused customers – how do we help them?

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Communications are renowned for their creative techniques for persuasion, often even verging on manipulation. Examples abound: aspirational messages (cue a happy group of friends), guilt-inducing messages (charity donation prompts), exclusivity messages (a limited offer for our best customers), hurry-up messages (offer expires in three, two, one…). As any marketer or advertising creative will know, the […]

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11
Nov

Not so added value

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Imagine you’re working in an electronics shop. A new gadget just came out – say, an iPod – and you’re in charge of putting together an offer for the first few days. Bundles are always good, you’re thinking, so you add a free song download – it doesn’t cost the company much, but it’s an […]

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05
Nov

Where does your brand sit in your consumer’s subconcious?

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Wouldn’t you love to have a solid, reliable map of where your brand sits in relation to its competitors in your consumer’s subconscious? Of course, it’s the foundation of any marketing strategy – a strategy designed to get you from A to B. The reality is, if you don’t know ‘A’, you don’t know where […]

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26
Oct

When crowds know best

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Voting is a timely topic. Britain just voted out of the EU, and the US is electing a new president in a few weeks. Next year, there are elections in France and Germany. Perhaps even Scotland will be voting, again, on which union to leave. That’s a great scope for predictions, providing experts and non-experts […]

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12
Oct

Trump’s unlikely ally – recognition heuristic

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The US presidential race is set to finish on November the 8th. We’ve all been following Donald Trump’s rise from one of sixteen Republican candidates to a serious presidential hopeful, often outraged, but mostly baffled by how this even happened. While Trump’s black-and-white simplicity and promises of great deals for America certainly helped, he owes […]

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09
Sep

Economics – the source of our financial woes?

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Growing inequality, disappearing middle class, poverty. Financial crises and ever-increasing debts. Corruption, money laundering, corporate tax avoidance, corporate misconduct in general. Future energy and food insecurity. These are just a few results of a broad-brush google search for modern economic problems. Put together, the list sounds like a doomsday scenario. Surely we’re doing something to […]

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