The bias is based on subjectivity and can lead to errors of evaluation since it’s subjective and influenced by the mental processes of the subject.
What is cognitive bias? A prejudice of thinking: in psychology, it is a construct that is not necessarily logical, a subjective conclusion reached without logical connections of cause and effect.
There are many coded biases: we will list some of the most common – you surely experienced a “mental short circuit” of this type, now and then – and try to understand how to use them to improve the user’s journey on our site.
Confirmation Bias: when the user wants to be right
The first bias we analyze is the most common of all: we talk about confirmation bias when a subject does not really want to inquire about a product, a brand or a service (but also a scientific or medical theory, or a political program) but wants to find results that confirm his preconceived idea, which has nothing rational.
If you combine the frequency of thinking via bias with the extemporaneousness of the impulse to purchase, you will understand that your users and potential customers are entirely irrational.
This kind of bias can be dangerous and is certainly the foundation of social phenomena expansion, such as fake news and “conspiracy theories.” The confirmation bias is amplified by the Dunning-Kruger effect, the inversely proportional relationship between one’s conviction of being right and the expertise on a specific theme.
At the marketing level it is good to pay attention to this bias especially in terms of brand awareness and management of any reputational crises: when a consumer still think about a specific concept, it feeds itself, and it is challenging to eradicate it. Think of how the question ” palm oil “has become a real media affair, with thousands and thousands of researchers per month for the associated brands with this ingredient” banned “by users.
Anchoring: the first information is the right one (or whatever we choose)
The subject generally “focus” on the first information of a topic or product: it is this anchor that will develop thoughts and actions.
The anchor is also related to the concept just mentioned: a bias that leads the user to rely on the initial information when it’s time to make a decision.
It means that people tend to be influenced by initial information when making an evaluation, even when not correlated and arbitrary.
For example, the initial price offered for a used car by a dealer is set at the beginning of the negotiation and has an arbitrary value. It is based only on the fact that on a sign placed on the bonnet of the vehicle there is written a certain figure, which will be taken – it will be anchored to it – as a reasonable average cost for that product.
You can use this mental mechanism to calibrate your pricing proposals strategically.
Identifiability: if I identify myself, I get involved
Being able to put a face to a Brand or a cause, developing a personal relationship with users, brings advantages from a conversions point of view.
We are human, and our emotions influence the rational sphere. This means that our decisions often derive from feelings and empathic involvement, rather than from mere calculation.
For example, if charity brands are fair and honest, we will “prefer” associations that are fighting for a cause we feel related to – because we also suffer from an illness or we have some friends/parents who suffer from it; because we traveled to a specific country, and we feel close to the difficulties of a local population,etc.
Generally, giving a face to these campaigns moves consciences more than providing explanations and raw numbers: this is why many NGOs emphasize the fact of being able to help, through donation, not a generic group of children but that child in the specific, who has a name and a unique life experience.
Aversion to loss and timed decisions: better to not lose than to earn
Better to earn or lose10 euros? According to the mechanism codified by this bias, the mind is inclined to refuse to lose an advantage, an occasion or an offer even with an incentive.
The survival instinct is manifested in humans beings through loss aversion. It means that we consider more useful to know we are avoiding to lose something, than gaining the same … even if the concept is the same.
It is good to take this into account, especially at the copy level: an advertising message that tells us to “do this and stop wasting X” will normally be more effective than one who promises us “do this, and you will get X“.
The concept is related to the phenomena of “time” decisions.
If you are an indecisive person, you will certainly have experienced that sense of anxiety that takes you when, in a new restaurant, everyone at the table has already decided, and the waiter is waiting to take your order.
The brain reacts to the pressure in a univocal way: it is invited to make a decision immediately. Any decision is enough to remove the problem and stop the state of alarm.
If we consider the restaurant as an example, the result is that you choose something you don’t know finding something you don’t like in your plate, or you opt for a recurring dish.
But how can we apply this “rush to act” to our marketing objectives? Taking advantage of the anxiety of losing the offer, through a guided path, is what we want our user to do.
Applying timers and counter to offers: if a subscription to your newsletter is linked not only to a discount on your e-commerce products but is also limited to a short period, it will have better results than the same operation without the variable timing.
The study of bias is part of the optimization of the user’s conversion path: knowing and listening to potential consumers, even in their most “obscure” mental processes, is useful to the business.
