The document provides a summary of articles on various behavioral science topics. In 3 sentences: The first article discusses how toy manufacturers use commitment and consistency tactics to increase post-Christmas toy sales. Another article finds that priming healthcare workers with citrus smells and male eyes above hand sanitizer stations increased sanitizer use. The final article examines whether highlighting time or money is more effective for different product types, finding time framing led to more positive attitudes for experiential purchases while money framing worked better for luxury goods.

1. O BEHAVE!
Issue 21 • December 2015

2. Toying with Christmas 3
Bias of the Month 4
The Power of Male vs Female Eyes 5
Time vs Money- Which is more important? 6
New Year New You 7
Real Life Nudge of the Month 8
Upcoming Events 8
CONTENTS

3. TOYING WITH CHRISTMAS by SUCHIT KAKAR
Christmas is soon upon us! It’s a time for joys, it’s a time for toys. But when the festive season simmers away, who’ll buy
toys that day? This is actually a serious problem faced by many a major toy manufacturer – how does one tackle the
inevitable post festive sales slump?
Just increasing advertising or giving discounts, though logically sound, are surprisingly not too effective ideas. It’s not the
children that need to be swayed; it’s their unfortunate and very shopping-fatigued parents that form the real barrier.
Perhaps, then, a behaviour-focused, persuasion-led endeavour instead?
Advertising before and during the holiday season is actually a great idea, to help kids know exactly what it is they want for
Christmas. Parents are also duly informed in the process, and often more than willing to comply; making promises that they
genuinely want to keep.
But when you, a parent, turn up to the store and find the (intentionally undersupplied) toy completely sold out, what can you
do but buy something else? Not that it really matters what the alternate gift is anyway. You’ve disappointed and let your
child down. You couldn’t keep your word.
Cialdini, R. (2009). Commitment and Consistency. In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (pp. 64 - 66). Harper Collins.
Christmas comes and Christmas goes, time moves on and the wound
will heal, you suppose. Then lo and behold! What is this you hear? The
TV says the toy is back this New Year!
Naturally, a promise you made is a one you would want to keep, or at
least that’s what your child will remind you persistently for a week. So
begrudgingly you’ll go back to the store and buy what you originally
intended for. Finally! Your child is happy, you are happy and oh, the toy
manufacturers are too, having found a way to sell twice as many
products.
So yes, though Christmas time is here, watch out for all the tricks and
retailer tactics out there. Here’s wishing you don’t fall a victim of
commitment and consistency as well!

4. BIAS OF THE MONTH
The Denomination Effect
Raghubir, P., & Srivastava, J. (2009). The denomination effect. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(4), 701-713.
I am sure I am not alone when I find myself needlessly spending
money in a shop to “get rid of my change”. This is due to what is
known as the “Denomination Effect” which is a finding that we are
less likely to spend larger bills than the equivalent value in smaller
denominations.
In one study illustrating this effect university students were given
a dollar, either in quarters or a single dollar bill. They were then
given the option to either save the money they had been given or
to spend it on sweets. Consistent with this bias the students given
the change were more likely to spend the money than those given
the bill.
If you are someone who hates spending money needlessly and
someone who owes you money says “Do you mind if I give you
change” say “NO”!.. Take the bills!!

5. THE POWER OF MALE VS FEMALE EYES
It is a well known phenomenon in behavioural science that pictures and smells can prime our behaviour and cognition.
Previous studies have found that citrus smells prime us to act generously (Lilijenquist et al., 2010) whereas pictures of eyes
looking at us prime us to behave honestly (Bateson et al., 2006). It has now been found that these two elements can also
prime us to act in a way that may save lives.
Hand hygiene is the single most important procedure in preventing hospital acquired infections, which can lead to disease
and death for vulnerable patients. The number of staff washing their hands is often scarily low in these environments and
encouraging staff to wash their hands is a task that many hospitals struggle with…….until they discovered the magic of
citrus smells and eyes.
To tackle the problem of poor hand hygiene in hospitals, researchers placed a pair of male or female eyes above a hand
sanitizer and pumped a citrus smell into the air at a hospital in Miami. They then observed the behaviour of 404 healthcare
workers to see if they used the hand sanitizer next to the door before entering the patients room. For their control group they
found that only 15% used the sanitizer whereas for the citrus group an amazing 45% of people used the sanitizer.
Where the results got really interesting is when they placed a pair of male or female eyes above it. When the healthcare
workers were exposed to male eyes, 33% of them used the sanitizer whereas this dropped to 10% when they were exposed
to the female eyes.
King, D., Vlaev, I., Everett-Thomas, R., Fitzpatrick, M., Darzi, A., & Birnbach, D. J. (2015). “Priming” Hand Hygiene Compliance in Clinical Environments.
Prof Vlaev, one the leading researched noted that “This may be because
male eyes cue different feelings, thoughts, or emotions than female eyes. In
many previous studies examining gender differences in exerting social
influence more generally, men have been found to exert more influence than
women and this may explain the differences seen.” He also stressed that the
male eyes showed more facial muscles which can often be perceived as
anger or thread which may have played a role.
Hand hygiene is a big problem in hospitals and is often tackled with big
expensive solutions such as educational programs etc. This study shows that
little clever ideas can have big impactful effects.

6. TIME VS MONEY- WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT?
References to time and money are pervasive in the consumer landscape. Take for example the marketing campaigns for two
brands of beers 1) Miller- “Its Miller Time” appeals to consumers by guiding attention to time whereas 2) Stella Artois- “Perfection
has its price” campaign appeals to consumers by focusing on money. These concepts are rife in communications but despite their
popularity there is little known about which if either is more effective in terms of creating positive consumer attitudes towards the
product. To address this question researchers conduced a series of experiments in both a lab and field study.
The first round of experiments found highlighting time over money on lemonade and an iPod produced not only more favourable
attitudes towards the products but also increased the amount of money the consumer was willing to spend on the them: “Spend a
little time, and enjoy C&D’s lemonade” (time) vs “Spend a little money, and enjoy some C& D’s lemonade (money).
Recognizing that activing money simply highlights costs whereas the activities of time highlights the benefits of the product the
researchers then sought to examine whether the activation of time (vs money) would lead to more favourable attitudes even when
spending time, like money was explicitly tied to a negative consequence. They asked participants to think about how much time or
money they spent trying to fix their laptop and then asked to share their thoughts on their laptop. Results showed that like the
previous experiments, those who were asked to think about time reported the most favourable attitudes towards their laptops.
Mogilner, C., & Aaker, J. (2009). “The time vs. money effect”: Shifting product attitudes and decisions through personal connection. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(2), 277-291.
All products mentioned have been experiential products for which product
usage is more important than product possession. Does highlighting time vs
money always lead to favourable attitudes or is it to do with the type of
product. The final experiment in this set of studies sought to see if the time vs
money effect could be reversed for prestige possession and found that yes it
can. Participants were asked to rate how much time or money they spent on
either an experiential experience (going to restaurant) or a prestige product
(designer jeans) and then rate their attitudes towards that product. Results
found that for the experiential purchase, those asked to think about time (vs
money) noted more favourable attitudes whereas those asked to think about
money (vs time) for the prestige possession noted the most favourable
attitudes. Time and money are important concepts for marketers to consider
but this research shows it is imperative that they think carefully about the
nature of the product before deciding which to highlight.

7. NEW YEAR, NEW YOU
With a new year approaching, lots of us are looking to shed our old, flawed selves and get closer to the ideal version of us.
It’s estimated that around 30% of Brits, and 45% of Americans, regularly make new year’s resolutions, even though only
around 10% of these resolutions translate into real change.
Dai, H., Milkman, K.L., & Riis, J. (2015). Put Your Imperfections Behind You: Temporal Landmarks Spur Goal Initiation When They Signal New Beginnings. Psychological
Science, 26 (12), 1927-1936.
But what is so special about the new year? A recent study by Dai, Milkman and Riis (2015) has provided causal evidence
that temporal landmarks – dates that particularly stand out due to their cultural significance, such as the new year or start of
a week, or personal significance, such as birthdays or anniversaries – increase motivation to initiate new behaviours in
pursuit of our goals. They asked a group of participants to describe a personal goal they were planning to pursue, and
offered a range of dates for a reminder email to be sent. These dates included 20th March 2014, which was either framed as
the third Thursday of the month or the first day of spring. Participants were a massive 3.5 times more likely to choose March
20th when it was framed as the first day of spring, which demonstrates that people are much more motivated by temporal
landmarks that demonstrate a new beginning, rather than arbitrary dates. This is also culturally dependent: Jewish
participants were much more motivated by the 5th October when framed as the day after Yom Kippur than when framed as
the 278th day of the year, an effect that wasn’t found for non-Jewish participants.
It is hypothesised that the mechanism underlying this is based on
the divide between our past and future selves. The more
important the new beginning feels, the greater the divide, which
makes us feel a greater degree of separation from our imperfect
past selves and previous failures. With the slate wiped clean, we
can perceive ourselves as different, better individuals and
therefore act in a way that feels consistent. This can also be
explained by prospect theory – with a reset reference point, any
small deviation in behaviour feels like a much greater loss than
another small loss added to many others from the preceding year.
It’s also worth remembering that people who explicitly set goals
for themselves are ten times more likely to achieve them than
those who don’t, so it may be worth writing some resolutions on
the clean slate of 2016.

8. Spotted: Commitment device in Boots
If you bought some cold or flu medicine from Boots earlier this year, it’s
likely you may have also received this voucher for 1/3 off your next related
medicinal purchase, along with the information that the average cold has
six symptoms. This works in a number of different ways: it’s a commitment
device to get you to return to Boots for your next purchase, it enhances
their authority as a pharmacy and you may even feel grateful towards them
for their thoughtful offer. Most importantly, it normalises buying several
different remedies for your individual symptoms, which means you’ll be
more likely to buy something for your cough, your sore throat, and your
blocked nose, rather than one treatment for all three.
REAL LIFE NUDGE OF THE MONTH
UPCOMING EVENTS
Behavioural Boozeonomics with the London Behavioural Economics Network
Monday 11th January, 6.30-11.00pm
The Comedy Pub, Piccadilly
Emotions: do they control us?
Monday 18th January, 6.30-8pm
LSE’s Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Global Conference on Business Management and Social Science
Thursday 28th – Friday 29th January
Le Méridien Dubai Hotel & Conference Centre

9. Cíosa Garrahan
@CiosaGarrahan
ciosa.garrahan@ogilvy.com
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Juliet Hodges
@hulietjodges
juliet.hodges@ogilvy.com