S2E10 👺 Behavioral Design

We interviewed David Fanner, behavior analyst at Ogilvy, about how to execute on Ben's Billion Dollar Plan from S1E1. David can be found at https://twitter.com/utterlydavid.

David’s behavioral science heroes are Rory Sutherland (https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Curious-Science-Creating-Business/dp/006238841X) and Nicholas Christakis (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Christakis).

Here are some notes on the first principles he mentioned.

Get who to: Use a “Get who to” analysis. As a first step, “Get 18-34 year olds to start investing”. As a second step, look at retention: “Retain family members in the behavior continuing the dynasty.” You can also do a COMB analysis (capability, opportunity, motivation = behavior).

-Capability: physical, mental (knowledge about how to invest).

-Opportunity: physical and social. Design of the lift vs the stairs. If stairs are further than the lift then the physical opportunity favours the lift. Social: do you or the office identify as stair users, are you a weirdo for using stairs? There can be a social barrier or bitter divide between groups.

-Motivation: reflective, automatic (95% of decisions are automatic). Priming relates to automatic.

Put incentives in the present: A participant in a prior Nudgestock (https://www.nudgestock.co.uk/) stated that putting the incentives in the present is key. A pint at the end of the month is less motivating than something nice now. With Ben’s Billion Dollar Plan we have the opposite, a payoff 3 generations later.

Humans have multiple time perspectives: Zimbardo - time perspective inventory, there are more than a handful of time perspectives that we shift in and out of throughout the day, here’s a speech by Zimbardo https://youtu.be/0YuzfwZlTJ0.

Naming: name it after yourself or something meaningful. ‘Ben’s Billion Dollar Plan’. As it’s named after you, you can claim credit in the now. The concept of designated driver, spread through soaps, made it ok for one person in a group not to drink for the good of others. Name the investor similarly.

Make the desired behavior a default: Prefilled boxes. Tap and go. Remove the potential to fiddle. Add friction to undesired behavior.

Goal gradient effect: As we approach a goal we put more effort toward it. Make mini milestones, thousands of them.

Design the environment: How does everything in your life point to this behavior? 

Fresh start effect: People are much more likely to start new behaviors at temporal landmarks. 

Streaks: you’ve been doing this for x days in a row. Backfire effects, you need a forgiving streak.

Variable rewards: variable rewards elicit a far more enthusiastic, effortful response compared to constant rewards.

Badges: fitness apps often use badges, as do computer games and some investing communities such as www.strawman.com.

Accountability buddies: if you have a buddy to hold you to account, they can keep you on course.

Private clubs: Invite only clubs are far more interesting. Acquisitions are more likely to be the ones who will be good for the service as they’ll be nominated by people already in the club. Members also get to subtly signal to the in group that they’re part of the same thing.