172 people were told of a fundraiser called Sheila who needed to sell 100 candy bars for her sports team and told she had to sell either 1 or 21 more bars to meet her quota. They were then asked how likely they were to buy a candy from her.

Those in the almost-complete task state were far more likely to help than when there were many left.

Visualize to motivate.

‍Showing quantifiable task progress  with a visual and numerical indicator will increase completion speed (Cheema & Bagchi, 2011).  

How can you heighten desire to close in on the reward?

Note that effort levels will fall after the current reward has been attained, so reframe progress around the next goal.

Be ahead of the curve. 

‍Endow Progress and put more weight on task completion at the start than when close to the goal. 

Place easier tasks at start and middle, saving harder or bigger ones for just before reward.

Reframe task size.

‍Motivation to complete a task is directly proportionate to its size. So, for viewers new to Breaking Bad, instead of Netflix initially highlighting all 5 seasons, reframe the task as a single season with a sense of completion.

Once season 1 is watched, reframe season 2 as a natural extension of 1 but distinct from 3-5.

96 women were given fitness trackers and asked to either walk 10,000 steps per day or walk a bit more each day than the average of their own last 9 days. This equated to a lower number of steps than the 10,000 group but had the benefit of adapting to each person’s own step count.

Results showed that over 4 months, those with a smaller, adaptive goal walked far more than the 10,000 group.

Start very small.

‍We’re time and attention-poor, wanting results now. As one step up from Endowed Progress, what is the smallest, valuable task you can design for that affords a fast, positive Feedback Loop?

To increase long-term success, Tiny Habits creator BJ Fogg suggests using an existing behavior to trigger a new one by 'chaining' new tiny behaviors onto existing habits. 

Keep the bigger goal front of mind.

‍People who’d completed a small exercise task were less likely to eat healthy food after, due to a short-term feeling of success (Fishbach et al., 2006). However, prompting a reminder of the larger Goal Prime of becoming fit removed this problem.

Time the reminder after tiny task success.

Make it adaptive.

‍A system that flexes with our fluctuating capacity (i.e. time or energy) will always work best. Understand users’ habitual patterns & weak points and design empathic experiences around these. 

88 students were told about an exercise training camp and split into 2 groups: either having a choice about  the four fitness programs on offer or having one randomly assigned. They were then asked to rate their anticipated satisfaction of the program out of 9.

Those given some autonomy reported higher levels of anticipated satisfaction than those who weren’t.

Choice = autonomy = certainty. 

For instance, giving people a choice to still use the old version of your software platform for a given timeframe will reduce anxiety and uncertainty.

Product type matters.

‍People desire autonomy for pleasure purchases (i.e. vacations) more than for practical ones (i.e. business trips).

Place more focus on the former in order to maximise feelings of control and consumer satisfaction (Botti & McGill, 2011).

Change behavior with the ‘4As’.

Feeling that any change originated from within is vital.

‍Ask about the behavior, advise them impartially of the facts and of better routes, but that they must make their own choice.

If keen to change, assist them to make a commitment to do so by a given date, and arrange a follow-up to support this behavior change.

435 people were asked to go to a restaurant and split into four groups. They were then either given a surprise free dessert or not, and then finally either given an explanation of the reason for the surprise or not. All were then asked to rate their level of delight.

Those given the explanation rated the surprise as more delightful than those who weren’t.

Surprise sparingly.  The more frequent the surprise, the less positive it will make customers feel. Give your staff creative autonomy to make small, personal & unexpected gestures that strike deep. 

Provide an explanation for the surprise to suppress future unrealistic customer expectations, avoid mistake misconceptions and heighten the sense of personalization. 

Reframe problems into surprises. During a busy Christmas, Lush (a UK soap store) had a long queue, which an elderly lady holding one item had joined. A shop assistant noticed, pointing out the queue length and that she didn’t need to pay. After he insisted she accept, she hugged him and left the shop with the free item. Another customer then told him that witnessing his kindness  had made her day. Both will recall compassion, positive surprise and stress relief in future perceptions of the Lush brand.

40 students were taught a topic and either given the respective homework once instantly or 3 times over the next 3 weeks. They then had an exam a month later.

Those who had the homework spaced out over time performed much better in the exam than those who were asked to do it immediately  after learning.

Spread out the learning.

‍Research shows that spaced repetition is the most robust means of learning but is rarely used by companies. Most knowledge is delivered once and forgotten, wasting money and time. Develop shorter learnings spread over time, using different tools, both digital and physical.

Use it or lose it.

‍Knowledge only sticks when we use it. After reading a book chapter, summarize learnings into bullet points, a list of actions, or even better, become the teacher. Blinkist could send some simple interactive questions after readers have finished a book. Use Slack app QuickQuiz to follow up Lunch & Learns with a Tiny Habit of bite-size questions. 

Make progress trackable.

‍Learnings apps like Duolingo and Memrise create powerful Feedback Loops through points systems, daily goals and leaderboards to create positive reinforcement. Tracking progress gives us a sense of growth and improvement.

48 people were shown 100 sets of numbers of different lengths, split up into a number of smaller chunks. After seeing each set, they were asked to recall the numbers in a memory test.

The results found that, on average, people were good at remembering about 7 numbers and 4 chunks before memory errors started kicking in.

Chunk for clarity.

‍Our short-term memory is limited, so whether you're designing a food menu or trying to share a new idea, prevent Analysis Paralysis by breaking information down into 3-5 smaller bites that are easier to process. 

Chunk requests.

‍If you're asking for a lot of info from customers, how can you break the task into more manageable segments?

Data capture company, Typeform are a great example of this, turning the concept of chunking into a core USP for its data capture products.

Chunk for long-term understanding.

Boost knowledge retention by structuring each chunk learned to build upon what was learned in previous ones. Repeat past chunks to build a strong, modular connection between fragmented bouts of learning.

Language app, Duolingo does this in an engaging visual way.

2230 people were tracked over a 19-year period and were asked to record their life satisfaction. All at some point during the study got married.

Results showed that despite average happiness peaking in the years surrounding their marriage, it eventually returned to the baseline.

Create unexpected secrets (Lyubomirsky, 2010).

As soon as your once-new product or service ceases to draw attention, it'll fail to be appreciated. What bundles, new variety or joyful hidden details can you build in and communicate to offset this?

Highlight new possibilities.

What ways can your product change customers' lives to set them on a new positive hedonic path? For example, a healthy snackbox subscription could add in recipe cards, unlocking a second-order effect of healthy food-pairing.

Reduce pain with certainty.

‍We revert to the mean faster for negative experiences when they're short and predictable. Banks offering loans shouldn’t just draw on the habitual pain of repayment but also seek to build a positive sense of closure around the joyous certainty of the final repayment. 

226 people were asked to go to the gym and split into three groups:  a control and two other groups given devices with audio books. Recommenders were told to restrict playback to when at the gym and Committers had to store their device in the locker after use.

It was found that commiting to this restriction boosted gym visits by 51% next to the control.

Bundle feats with treats.

‍What sort of behaviors do you want to encourage with your team or customers? Temptation bundling can be very effective in areas where short-term self-control is weakest, like saving, exercise or food choices. What complementary experiences can you bundle alongside the toughest tasks? 

‍

Create your own “If-Then” commitments.

‍Ideas include only listening to your favorite podcasts if cleaning the house, getting a coffee on the way to work only if you cycle or walk, or committing to a nice hot bath only if you’ve kept to your weekly spending budget.

‍

Keep it fresh.

‍Commitments are a powerful way to maintain long-term behavior change (Royer et al., 2012). However, life does get in the way and we tend to eventually hedonically-adapt to all good things. Keep engagement high by highlighting people’s past successes and creating new bundled experiences that are uniquely attractive. For instance, a gym having all streaming services, even those you might not have access to at home.

‍

274 people were shown 10 t-shirts, split into 4 groups and then asked to rate the shirts on either likeability, casualness, colorfulness or how much it matched with a cap. They were then asked how fun the task was.

Those given the ability to express their like or dislike rated the task as much more fun than the other groups. Simply, we value ways to express how we feel.

Personalization pays.

Bold, scaleable self-expressive features increase loyalty and sales.

Coca-Cola’s #ShareaCoke campaign - switching out the product name for a person’s name - led to a 10% rise in 2014 sales and a 7% spike in Facebook growth.

An Australian store sold 400,000 customized jars of Nutella for $10 each, becoming their top seller.

Tie it back to emotions.

Though there are successes like Kraft Heinz personalized soup “Get Well Soon ___”, with consumers happy to spend five times more, know that personalization has upper bounds on price and has less impact as it becomes more common.

Like Heinz, the smartest brands will tie personalization to underlying product emotions - care and sympathy in this case.

What emotions do you want end consumers to feel? Use personalization to help express these publicly.  

150  students completed a simple task and were split into two groups and given either positive or negative feedback on their performance. They were then shown either a one-off print or a mass-produced one and asked how much they’d pay for it.

Those given negative feedback were willing to pay almost 4x more on average for the unique print than those with positive feedback, showing how we use consumption to heal our sense of status.

There are multiple ways to elevate brand status:

‍Form strategic alliances with successful others with whom you share compatible goals (Thorndike, 1920), e.g. Go-Pro and Red Bull.

Develop your core purpose to raise your products’ perceived value (Chernev & Blair, 2015), e.g. Patagonia who “use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” 

Create and control new ways of promoting industry excellence. Dribbble, a platform for design teams to show off their work provides paid-for "Pro Business" status badges to distinguish the best from the rest.

Invest in a tiered loyalty scheme to elevate consumers’ status & brand attachment (Nunes & Dréze, 2006), e.g. British Airways Executive Club.

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.

468 people were randomly assigned to one of ten groups and shown a website list of ten hotels, each with the hotels in a different order. They were then asked to choose one.

Regardless of their group, more people chose hotels placed at the start and end of the list.

Position matters.

‍Why? Initial options are prioritized in our memory (Primacy effect). Then, we see a pattern, switch off in the middle and only at the end do latter options held in short term memory (Recency Effect) influence the decisions we make, so put your best stuff at each end.

End on a high.

‍Advertisers promoting benefits of their product should combine recency with the Peak-End Rule, finishing with a significant or unique feature to enhance recall, conversion and seal the deal with a positive Surprise.

Order = opportunity.

‍For ecommerce or aggregation sites, consider monetizing product positioning for the start and (paradoxically) end of your lists. Alternatively, design for and highlight conversion fairness with random ordering.

733 new employees of a health company used a single opt-in process to subscribe to a retirement plan. Results were compared to a multi-step phone process used with 455 and 407  employees from the two previous years.

Participation rates were 5% after one month and 8% after three months. With the new process, they rose to 19% and 35% respectively.

Perform a friction audit.

Identify all the hurdles and delays your user may feel while using your product and attempt to minimise them. How many barriers to a near-effortless user experience can you find?

Adding friction can help people from making mistakes.

Add barriers to counter System 1 mode, prompting users for conscious reflection to validate important information (e.g. monetary transactions). What strategic friction can you create?

Add friction to make waiting times feel shorter.

Houston airport reduced the number of luggage waiting times complaints by moving the luggage area further away so that passengers spent more time walking and less time waiting.

Remove friction but highlight effort.

Our willingness to pay for something increases by knowing how much work is done for us. We pay more for a cup of coffee if we see the barista working on it for several minutes.

With the rise of wearable devices, personal quantification is easier than ever. It's not a surprise that self-tracking has a large adherence in a competitive, comparative culture where the individual is constantly improving his performance in every possible measure.

But it has a cost.

One of the responsibilities of product creators is to understand and examine the resultant behaviours that modifications to the product design will trigger. By adding certain features or changing their salience, you will inevitably change the behavioural dynamics.

It’s well studied that external rewards undermine intrinsic motivation, but now we know that the act of tracking can also impact it by reminding us of the output, making the activities seem like work. Thus, not everything that can be measured should be measured.

Peter Drucker said “What gets measured gets managed, even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organization to do so”.

It’s a warning from the father of management that it’s not often taken to heart, and this study reminds us of it.

With the rise of wearable devices, personal quantification is easier than ever. It's not a surprise that self-tracking has a large adherence in a competitive, comparative culture where the individual is constantly improving his performance in every possible measure.

But it has a cost.

One of the responsibilities of product creators is to understand and examine the resultant behaviours that modifications to the product design will trigger. By adding certain features or changing their salience, you will inevitably change the behavioural dynamics.

It’s well studied that external rewards undermine intrinsic motivation, but now we know that the act of tracking can also impact it by reminding us of the output, making the activities seem like work. Thus, not everything that can be measured should be measured.

Peter Drucker said “What gets measured gets managed, even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organization to do so”.

It’s a warning from the father of management that it’s not often taken to heart, and this study reminds us of it.

95 university students spent the day leisurely walking. In the measurement group they were given the choice to wear a pedometer. In the control group, everyone used a sealed shut pedometer. Afterwards, they rated how much they enjoyed walking.

Measuring led participants to walk more but decreased how much they enjoyed it – even for those who chose to be measured.

Consider what you want your users to feel.

While measurement may improve performance, it comes at the expense of enjoyment. By adding a measurement option, the behaviour will feel like work instead of fun.

Understand why users engage in an activity when deciding whether to measure it.

Sometimes the benefit of achieving more may outweigh the cost of users enjoying the experience. Does the end you’re looking to achieve justify the means of measuring its progress?

Switch the motivation type by becoming pro-social and giving meaning to the measurement.

For example: If you reduce your calories, you could send the equivalent of those excess calories to someone in need of food.

Prior data can set reference points that demotivate us

Our personal motivation can suffer in the face of prior data, setting unhelpful reference points about future expected efforts.

For instance, consider the following: "I can see that I ran 10k 3 times in a row, so if I don't run 10k this time, I feel that I'm doing worse. But I just don't feel like I can do 10k today, so I won't go at all."

However, in absolute terms, you're doing more in total by doing any more running at all, whether that's 1k, or even 100m, so you're best off ignoring the data and doing *something*.

A good counterbalance to this is to focus instead on the *experience* that running provides. This removes the quantifiable reference point and frees us to just enjoy the act for what it is. And who knows, maybe we'll end up running longer than 10k in the process!

48 teenagers were divided into 2 groups based on expressing a preference for a painting. They were then told to anonymously award money to other participants involved in the study.

The results demonstrated that when given a choice between maximising profit for all groups and maximising profit for their own group, they chose the latter.

In-Group favouritism can take many forms.

For instance, designers might feel they are the out-group in a meeting dominated by engineers, creating a sense that they're either not as welcomed or have opinions that aren't as valued. Who might be feeling excluded in your projects and meetings?

Turn “Us vs Them” into “We”.

Broaden the perception of group boundaries by cooperating with the out-group in shared activities (Gaertner et al., 1990). Which situations can you create that promote collaboration?

Actively use the benefits of your outgroup.

‍We tend to evaluate the work of our own group as better and more creative than it really is. However, by enlisting the aid of an out-group, you may have an accurate assessment of the actual creative value (Adarves‐Yorno, 2008).

Be careful with unconscious bias.

Groups can be formed by meaningless reasons but also by our own pre-conceived notions or bias. What might be some of the reasons you or others use to place someone in an out-group? How might you raise this in a way to bring disconnected groups together?

378 people were were split into two groups and offered two coffees, small and large, with prices either $0.95 and $1.20 or $1 and $1.25.

Results showed that people were 55.5% likely to upgrade to a large coffee when the small was $1 than when it was $0.95 (28.9%). Average coffee sale prices were also higher in the boundary condition ($1.14 vs $1.02).

Offer upgrades? Use boundary pricing.

If you offer more than one product option at different prices, boundary pricing can help improve the rate of upgrades.

This is because, next to a price set just below a boundary (e.g. $95), increasing a base price to just above ($105) makes the upgrade option ($135) appear cheaper and less of a painful step up.

It's because of the way we encode numbers, chunking them into broader numerical categories to infer value. This increases willingness to upgrade and therefore spending.

Works with multiple upgrade options

As long as the prices all sit within the same price boundary, the effects persist for product ranges with more than two options. This was shown with further studies on purchases of apartments and cars, which both offered multiple upgrade options.

Maximise upgrade range by setting your base price around a more round numerical amount (e.g $10,000 vs $11,000).

This will allow you to offer upgrade options that sit within a broader, albeit the same price boundary ($10000-19000 vs $11000-11999).

Present options together, not sequentially

The effects of boundary pricing disappear when the options are shown separately (different screens / post-purchase), relying upon the user's memory in some way.

Ensure that users can easily see the value of upgrading, by showing the base price next to the upgrade.

Note that impact also reduces when the upgrade option sits in a higher boundary ($205) than the base ($105).

• Morals are driven by 5 factors (2008)
Though ever-evolving over time and different according to culture, Pinker states that what is seen as morally-acceptable is governed by our needs for fair Reciprocity, Community belonging, adherence to some form of Authority, Aversion to Risk and avoidance of harm to others.

• Imagery is incredibly powerful for cognition (1986)
In Steven’s words “We are visual creatures. Visual things stay put, whereas sounds fade.” His award-winning research into visual cognition teaches us how it works and points towards the power of the Picture Superiority Effect.

“All of the violence that doesn’t occur doesn’t get reported on the news.”

- Pinker (2018) Enlightenment Now

• We believe things are much worse than evidence suggests (2018)
In his 2018 book, Enlightenment Now, he targets common misconceptions about violence and inequality in modern society, showing that these false beliefs are a result of the Availability Bias. Quantitative evidence shows how wealth has increased around the globe, while poverty and violence have both decreased. ‍

• We're different, and that's okay... (2012)
In The Blank Slate, he argues that some human characteristics are pre-defined by our genes. For instance, he states that there are visible differences between the brains of men and women, citing research that men are less Risk Averse and are better at conceptualizing 3D objects. Similarly, women are much better at spelling and reading body language and facial expressions.

• Morals are driven by 5 factors (2008)
Though ever-evolving over time and different according to culture, Pinker states that what is seen as morally-acceptable is governed by our needs for fair Reciprocity, Community belonging, adherence to some form of Authority, Aversion to Risk and avoidance of harm to others.

• Imagery is incredibly powerful for cognition (1986)
In Steven’s words “We are visual creatures. Visual things stay put, whereas sounds fade.” His award-winning research into visual cognition teaches us how it works and points towards the power of the Picture Superiority Effect.

“All of the violence that doesn’t occur doesn’t get reported on the news.”

- Pinker (2018) Enlightenment Now

• We believe things are much worse than evidence suggests (2018)
In his 2018 book, Enlightenment Now, he targets common misconceptions about violence and inequality in modern society, showing that these false beliefs are a result of the Availability Bias. Quantitative evidence shows how wealth has increased around the globe, while poverty and violence have both decreased. ‍

• We're different, and that's okay... (2012)
In The Blank Slate, he argues that some human characteristics are pre-defined by our genes. For instance, he states that there are visible differences between the brains of men and women, citing research that men are less Risk Averse and are better at conceptualizing 3D objects. Similarly, women are much better at spelling and reading body language and facial expressions.

• 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.

• The Afterlife Effect states that if people are more explicitly shown what the products they are being asked to recycle will become, they will recycle more.

• It's driven by a mix of inspiration, a short story being told and a sense of closure from feedback as to what will happen if they choose to recycle.

• Producers should invest more time in closing this narrative loop to create the aha moment that compels people to recycle.

• The Afterlife Effect can be used to drive new circular economy partnerships and even rewards for the most environmentally-conscious consumers.

Did you know that since plastic was invented in 1907, a staggering 91% of the 8.3bn tonnes produced since has not been recycled (Geyer, Jambeck, and Law 2017)?

It's true that certain companies such as PepsiCo and Evian have already committed to 100%-recycled manufacture by 2020 and 2025, respectively. But more generally, we're still a long way off; plastics recycling actually fell in recent years from 9.5 to 9.1% (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] 2018a).

How then might we use our understanding of behavioral economics to improve the policies of government, industries and companies and speed up this process?

So far, a lot of behavioral research has been done on the more negative side of persuasive messaging to affect decisions to recycle (Bilandzic, Kalch, and Soentgen, 2017) which, though effective on some, can come across as coercive and trigger angry reactance in others, reducing its effectiveness (Griskevicius, Cantu, and Van Vugt 2012).

Despite the doom and gloom that surrounds the bigger question of our collective future, how instead might behavioral economics appeal to a more positive, inspirational side of our decision-making?

Well, some brilliant new research has just been released showing us how. It's called the Afterlife Effect, part of a growing trend of more positive behavioral nudges that you'll start to see a lot more of in future.

The concept

The researchers propose a new, positive way of increasing recycling that focuses on the story of what happens to old products after they've been recycled and what they turn into.

What lies at the core of these stories told? Inspiration, defined as an awareness of a new idea or concept that we didn't know before, so-called "aha moments" ("Oh, so that's what the cups become!"), followed by a new-found motivation to act on it ("That's so cool. It's great to see the impact of my recycling").

This short story provides a powerful, positive and understandable feedback loop as to why we should recycle.

Let's take a look at the research that demonstrates this concept to see the effect on people's recycling.

The research

Study 1 - Showing how a product's afterlife can boost recycling behavior

111 people were split into two core groups (a control and a product afterlife condition) and asked to perform a 'mind-clearing task' of doodling on a sheet of paper.

All were then shown one of three advertisements for product recycling (shown below) and asked to rate it for how likely they'd be to recycle.

They were then asked to clean away their desks, putting their paper either in a recycling container or the trash.

The results fascinatingly showed that those that saw the control with no afterlife information recycled their paper 51% of the time, whereas those in the Afterlife condition recycled 80% of the time! A staggering increase.

Study 2 - Higher click-throughs for ads with product afterlife

The researchers also wanted to see what impact the Afterlife Effect would have on click-throughs on a real advertising campaign.

They worked with clothing company Madewell, who were running a jeans recycling campaign at the time, where old jeans would be turned into household insulation.

Two Google Adwords variants were set up to test to see if the effect held both with and without the Afterlife Effect applied.

After running the campaign for 5 days, the researchers found that click-throughs were significantly higher (26%) for the Afterlife ad over the control (18%), even without any optimization!

The paper lists a further four studies that show the impact of the Afterlife Effect on decision-making.

In summary, given the urgency to act, there is a strong motivation to find new ways to help people to change their environmental consumer behavior.

Using storytelling, feedback loops and triggering inspiration in people can act as a much more positive and powerful motivator for behavior change that won't trigger negative reactions.

• The Afterlife Effect states that if people are more explicitly shown what the products they are being asked to recycle will become, they will recycle more.

• It's driven by a mix of inspiration, a short story being told and a sense of closure from feedback as to what will happen if they choose to recycle.

• Producers should invest more time in closing this narrative loop to create the aha moment that compels people to recycle.

• The Afterlife Effect can be used to drive new circular economy partnerships and even rewards for the most environmentally-conscious consumers.

Did you know that since plastic was invented in 1907, a staggering 91% of the 8.3bn tonnes produced since has not been recycled (Geyer, Jambeck, and Law 2017)?

It's true that certain companies such as PepsiCo and Evian have already committed to 100%-recycled manufacture by 2020 and 2025, respectively. But more generally, we're still a long way off; plastics recycling actually fell in recent years from 9.5 to 9.1% (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] 2018a).

How then might we use our understanding of behavioral economics to improve the policies of government, industries and companies and speed up this process?

So far, a lot of behavioral research has been done on the more negative side of persuasive messaging to affect decisions to recycle (Bilandzic, Kalch, and Soentgen, 2017) which, though effective on some, can come across as coercive and trigger angry reactance in others, reducing its effectiveness (Griskevicius, Cantu, and Van Vugt 2012).

Despite the doom and gloom that surrounds the bigger question of our collective future, how instead might behavioral economics appeal to a more positive, inspirational side of our decision-making?

Well, some brilliant new research has just been released showing us how. It's called the Afterlife Effect, part of a growing trend of more positive behavioral nudges that you'll start to see a lot more of in future.

The concept

The researchers propose a new, positive way of increasing recycling that focuses on the story of what happens to old products after they've been recycled and what they turn into.

What lies at the core of these stories told? Inspiration, defined as an awareness of a new idea or concept that we didn't know before, so-called "aha moments" ("Oh, so that's what the cups become!"), followed by a new-found motivation to act on it ("That's so cool. It's great to see the impact of my recycling").

This short story provides a powerful, positive and understandable feedback loop as to why we should recycle.

Let's take a look at the research that demonstrates this concept to see the effect on people's recycling.

The research

Study 1 - Showing how a product's afterlife can boost recycling behavior

111 people were split into two core groups (a control and a product afterlife condition) and asked to perform a 'mind-clearing task' of doodling on a sheet of paper.

All were then shown one of three advertisements for product recycling (shown below) and asked to rate it for how likely they'd be to recycle.

They were then asked to clean away their desks, putting their paper either in a recycling container or the trash.

The results fascinatingly showed that those that saw the control with no afterlife information recycled their paper 51% of the time, whereas those in the Afterlife condition recycled 80% of the time! A staggering increase.

Study 2 - Higher click-throughs for ads with product afterlife

The researchers also wanted to see what impact the Afterlife Effect would have on click-throughs on a real advertising campaign.

They worked with clothing company Madewell, who were running a jeans recycling campaign at the time, where old jeans would be turned into household insulation.

Two Google Adwords variants were set up to test to see if the effect held both with and without the Afterlife Effect applied.

After running the campaign for 5 days, the researchers found that click-throughs were significantly higher (26%) for the Afterlife ad over the control (18%), even without any optimization!

The paper lists a further four studies that show the impact of the Afterlife Effect on decision-making.

In summary, given the urgency to act, there is a strong motivation to find new ways to help people to change their environmental consumer behavior.

Using storytelling, feedback loops and triggering inspiration in people can act as a much more positive and powerful motivator for behavior change that won't trigger negative reactions.

111 people were split into two groups and asked to perform a mind-clearing task of doodling on a sheet of paper.

People who were shown the afterlife information (doodled paper being recycled into a new paper or a guitar) were more likely to recycle their paper than those who were not given this information (control).

‍Close the loop with a simple, inspiring story.

Consumers value the powerful stories told by products made from recycled material (Kamleitner, Thuerridl, and Martin 2019).

Get people to think about the transformative effects of turning old products into new ones with a story.

For instance, UK retailer Marks & Spencer is now rolling out a scheme where you can recycle any plastic in-store to be turned into shop fixtures and playground equipment for schools. They could use the box to show off the intended afterlife to inspire customers, as shown here.

If you sell a physical product, how can you build in and communicate the story of its afterlife?

Positivity is persuasive!

We are seeing a growing trend away from negative interventions (Moller, Ryan, and Deci 2006) with new research showing that positive, inspirational nudges can be more effective in motivating behavior change!

Although triggering Loss Aversion, for instance, can be effective, you may see greater results with a positive nudge.

How might you use inspirational nudges over negative, shaming ones in an environmental context?

Make it timely.

Organisations and Governments can also do a better job of motivating recycling at the point of disposal with the Afterlife Effect.

Recycling rates will be increased if we can see, at the point of disposal, what our efforts will turn into.

Consider tie-ups with complementary products / brands.

Though Nespresso recycle the aluminium from their coffee pods, they currently have no Afterlife Effect in place.

They could alternatively use recycled materials to make some of the complementary metal-based products on their site and gift them to those with a decent level of recycling.

What info we decide to surface visually has a powerful effect on peoples’ decisions. The same is also true for what we choose to hide.

For instance, if I wanted to design a work environment where people ate more fruit, I could buy bananas and apples but store them in the fridge, out of view.

But this would have what we call “low salience”, or a low likelihood of being seen.

Instead, to boost fruit consumption further, we’d want to increase Salience.

So now, instead of hiding the fruit in the fridge, we put it in large colourful bowls in central, highly visible areas of the office in eye line and within arm’s reach.

Now the fruit have “high salience” and are much more likely to be eaten.

Note that this also has second order effects; more salience from the fruit bowls means more people eating fruit, creating a powerful salience cycle.

What do you want people to do more or be more aware of? How can you increase its salience next to other things?

Another strategy is to remove other things around it to increase salience in relative terms. So in the fruit example, we might want to remove the coffee machine to give the bowls greater salience.

What info we decide to surface visually has a powerful effect on peoples’ decisions. The same is also true for what we choose to hide.

For instance, if I wanted to design a work environment where people ate more fruit, I could buy bananas and apples but store them in the fridge, out of view.

But this would have what we call “low salience”, or a low likelihood of being seen.

Instead, to boost fruit consumption further, we’d want to increase Salience.

So now, instead of hiding the fruit in the fridge, we put it in large colourful bowls in central, highly visible areas of the office in eye line and within arm’s reach.

Now the fruit have “high salience” and are much more likely to be eaten.

Note that this also has second order effects; more salience from the fruit bowls means more people eating fruit, creating a powerful salience cycle.

What do you want people to do more or be more aware of? How can you increase its salience next to other things?

Another strategy is to remove other things around it to increase salience in relative terms. So in the fruit example, we might want to remove the coffee machine to give the bowls greater salience.

Over 10 days, millions of people using online ticket marketplace Stubhub were put into two groups, where 15% ticket fees were either made salient up front during ticket browsing, or hidden until checkout.

Results found that for those with delayed salience of the fee, revenue increased by 21%, with a quarter of this due to higher priced tickets being bought.

What is seen is what is done

Surfacing key information in a timely fashion can prompt us to do more of what we aspire to. For instance, Amazon have redesigned their Kindle so that when it's not in use, the screensaver becomes the cover of the book you're currently reading. This acts as a salient reminder to read as one notices the Kindle throughout the day. We can use the same approach to boost healthy eating, having a bowl of fruit on the kitchen table over one filled with salty cashews. What do you want users to do more of? How do you want them to feel? What unique or delightful features can you surface that will help inspire action and make Tiny Habits that much more likely to form?

More knowledge isn't necessarily better

There's a trade-off between what's presented to us now and making good decisions for our future. For instance, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase choose to omit the % gained or lost from one's investments. Research shows that if they instead showed this, people may incorrectly sell coins that have increased in value, while keeping coins that have dropped in value, known as the Disposition Effect.

Differentiate by removing information

Whereas knowledge can be power, it can also demotivate. For example, weight loss scales Shapa does away with the number telling you how much you weigh, instead providing 5 colour bands denoting averaged performance. Omitting the number shifts us away from short term fluctuations in weight that can lead to feelings of failure causing us to give up. What information or options could you hide that could otherwise lead users to short term or harmful outcomes? What can you remove that could confuse or overwhelm?

Delayed salience can trigger shock

Also consider the ethical implications of hiding key information, as in the study above. In this case, any reactance felt will be relative to the proportion of the extra fees incurred, customer expectations, industry norms and how frequent the transaction is. Hidden fees on more regular transactions like grocery shopping will be subject to higher levels of reactance than one-offs like a car purchase. There is an art to surfacing such painful information at the correct time in order to generate a sale. Try adding an explanation of why the fee exists to reduce drop-off, like Airbnb do.

Over 27,000 Israelis were mailed a self-administering Colorectal Cancer test kit. The kit either included an “if–then” leaflet with instructions of when, where, and how to perform the test or a standard leaflet with no such planning instructions (control group). They were then asked 2 and 6 months later whether they took the test.

71.4% of the If-then plan recipients took the test compared to 67.9% of the control group meaning If-Then plans resulted in 6.6% more of participants taking the test.

Whether designing for yourself or for others, here's how to make an easy, effective If-Then Plan:

First, define the goal.

If for you, it might be to exercise more. If for others, it might be to reduce an organisation's water waste. What existing behaviour are you looking to reduce or reinforce? Alternatively, what new, aspirational behaviour might you be looking to foster?

Identify your "If" context

This will become the future cue or environment that we'll recognise. It'll provide a clear, detectable moment to do something, even if you're busy or tired. Pick scenarios that are encountered often (E.g. on a daily basis, like an office lobby) to boost effectiveness.

E.g. "If/when I'm waiting for the elevator…"

Choose a behavioural "then" response

This is the specific behaviour that will get you closer to the goal you defined. The easier it is to recall and do, the more it will be done. For instance, what small, relevant and easy-to-recall behaviour can I do IF I'm waiting for the elevator?

E.g. "I will take the stairs"

Planning these steps out in advance and defining exactly how one should respond in the situation creates a strong, repeatable link between seeing and doing.

E.g. "If I have to wait for the elevator, then I will take the stairs"

Note: If designing for others, to ensure it'll be easy and fits within the context you're designing for, consider roleplaying it out before you roll it out. Role before you roll, if you will.

Inform, do not instruct.

A vivid, relatable and subtly persuasive image or message will be more effective to change consumer behaviour, whereas instructing them could be met with reactance. Remove this threat to personal freedom by giving consumers more autonomy when they make decisions.

Ideally, If-Thens should be defined at least in part by the person themselves. However, there are creative workarounds; companies could set and share strategic goals, with employees writing their own If-Then Plans to help achieve such goals.