58 households in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had their fruit and veg shopping monitored for 8 weeks. Half were offered a 50% discount reward on all fruit and veg purchased and half were not.

Results showed that the reward increased healthy food purchasing behavior from 6.4 to 16.7 servings of fruit and veg  on average per week per household.

Rewards come in two types: Extrinsic and Intrinsic. 

‍Extrinsic rewards are economic: pay, discounts, working conditions, gold stars, healthcare, promotions etc. 

Intrinsic rewards are emotional, coming from a sense of achievement through skill and hard work, unplanned verbal praise from authority figures, and peer recognition.

Too much extrinsic will lessen internal motivation as it’s seen as controlling, especially if they’re later removed (Murayama et al., 2010). Ensure that they’re significant enough to motivate against task boredom (Hidi, 2015) and are in line with the market needs of employees / customers.

Focus on rewarding intrinsically - seen as a superior reward (Deci et al., 1999) - with greater levels of trust, choice and freedom to make one’s own decisions. You’ll be rewarded with a more motivated, loyal following as a result.

90 people were asked to solve 50 puzzles in either 10 or 40 minutes. A time-saving notification stating that “This question isn’t worth any points. Press A to skip” would pop up for half the puzzles.

Results showed that the time-scarce group ironically were more likely to miss the time-saving notifications due to their heightened focus on task completion.

‍Time Scarcity increases conversion under a few conditions

Make sure your use of it is on-brand, authentic and not overly-aggressive to avoid harming long-term trust and loyalty.

A big clock with red flashing text may boost sales in the short-term but risks damaging brand perceptions in the longer term and will lead to Reactance in the more behaviorally-aware and in more mature markets with stronger competition. 

Use time windows for excitement.

Particularly for experiments with new ideas or for seasonal Limited Editions. Starbucks’ Unicorn Frappucino was on sale for 5 days only. It sold out in just 3 and generated 160,000 Instagram posts. 

Develop novel ways of saving people time.

‍People who spend money on time-saving purchases report greater life satisfaction (Whillans et al, 2017). 

Amazon and Sainsbury’s are exploring no-queue, no-till shopping. Just scan on the app and leave. How can you free up even a few minutes of our most precious commodity?

249 supermarket customers were invited to one of two tables, displaying either 24 jams or 6 jams. They were then asked how attractive the jams were and observed as to whether they bought one.

The results found that though customers considered the 24 jams more attractive, they were far more likely to buy when there were only 6 jams to choose from.

Reduce choice difficulty. If customers are time-poor, reduce the number of dimensions along which your products are compared. Present choices in an organised, non-random order, especially with visual layouts. 

Tidy up choice relationships. Highlight one dominant option, align the attributes along which products are compared, and eliminate products from your range that overly complement each other to decrease deferral and increase purchase likelihood.

Adapt to product expertise. Who is your audience? To what extent can they weigh up the benefits of each possible choice? Experts prefer more choice and the lesser-informed crave less.

Build around intent & focus. Intent: are they buying or merely browsing? If browsing, they’re not making a decision, and are less likely to feel overloaded. Focus: a single purchase or a bundle? Bundlers want more options, but Singles want fewer.

• Katy did some great work on inter-temporal choice (how we choose is greatly dictated by when it's for).

She looked at online grocery ordering and found that we tend to make healthier "should" food choices the further we plan into the future, and less healthy "want" choices to satisfy our immediate needs. Ultimately, we have a Present Bias that gives more weight to immediacy, impacting our self-control and ability to stay healthy.

• Her study on flu jabs got people to make a written pre-Commitment to have their jab at a specific date and time. Doing so increased vaccinations by 4.2% (Milkman, Beshears, Choi, Laibson and Madrian, 2011)

“Thanks to the progress of behavioral science, we now have a new set of tools that can help — and produce big returns on small investments.”

• In understanding how to help break old habits and start new ones, Katy looked at the Fresh Start Effect, finding that we're more likely to stick to commitments made at the start of a new time period (e.g. a new week, month or year).

• She co-authored research on motivation and Temptation Bundling, finding that people can be made to do the hard 'should' tasks (e.g. going to the gym) by bundling them with pleasant 'want' experiences (listening to an audiobook). Gym attendance was boosted by 51% next to the no-bundle group.

• In 2018, found Reciprocity Decay showing that our desire to return an act of kindness wanes rapidly over time, impacting acts of goodwill from companies or the effectiveness of charities in raising donations.

• Katy did some great work on inter-temporal choice (how we choose is greatly dictated by when it's for).

She looked at online grocery ordering and found that we tend to make healthier "should" food choices the further we plan into the future, and less healthy "want" choices to satisfy our immediate needs. Ultimately, we have a Present Bias that gives more weight to immediacy, impacting our self-control and ability to stay healthy.

• Her study on flu jabs got people to make a written pre-Commitment to have their jab at a specific date and time. Doing so increased vaccinations by 4.2% (Milkman, Beshears, Choi, Laibson and Madrian, 2011)

“Thanks to the progress of behavioral science, we now have a new set of tools that can help — and produce big returns on small investments.”

• In understanding how to help break old habits and start new ones, Katy looked at the Fresh Start Effect, finding that we're more likely to stick to commitments made at the start of a new time period (e.g. a new week, month or year).

• She co-authored research on motivation and Temptation Bundling, finding that people can be made to do the hard 'should' tasks (e.g. going to the gym) by bundling them with pleasant 'want' experiences (listening to an audiobook). Gym attendance was boosted by 51% next to the no-bundle group.

• In 2018, found Reciprocity Decay showing that our desire to return an act of kindness wanes rapidly over time, impacting acts of goodwill from companies or the effectiveness of charities in raising donations.