67 people were asked if they prefer Coke, Pepsi or have no preference, split into taster groups and given 3 rounds of both in either unlabeled or labeled cups.

Taste preferences were split evenly when the drinks were unlabeled, but when labeled, they exhibited a strong taste preference for Coke, underlining the bias of brand attachment in consumer choice.

Test your assumptions. Decision-Makers often start new projects under judgements that are both unproven and erroneous. Bring key Decision-Makers together to list assumptions honestly. Use these as a basis for testing the validity of the idea in its simplest form. This avoids unnecessary costs further down the line. See the Lean Startup Model for further details.

Consider conflicting alternatives to strengthen your strategic decision-making process. Seek impartial feedback from trusted others who are less emotionally invested in the chosen route than you.

Repeatedly point out what you do well, especially with attention to small details around customer care or craftsmanship in process. Consumers will begin to notice and start to look for further evidence to support these newly-held beliefs.

42 people were either asked to make 35  'A or B' choices that would inform the design of an educational course they were attending, or instead to just read the course material. Both were then tasked with solving math puzzles and were timed until they gave up.

Those who had to make the choices beforehand persisted for less time on the puzzles and also got fewer right.

Protect your decision capacity.

Prioritize your day around and take breaks before making harder decisions. For example, restaurant inspectors can reduce errors by scrutinizing sites at higher risk of failure at the start of the day (Ibanez & Toffel, 2017).

Create product contrast.

‍When no option in a set offers a distinct advantage from the others, we're most at risk of not choosing at all (Dhar, 1997). How can you improve your choice architecture to offer variety that actually makes deciding easier? 

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Order matters for revenue.

‍Prospective Audi owners given a high number of customization options early on more readily accepted, higher-priced defaults in later steps (Levav, 2010). Though be careful not to trigger Reactance by pre-selecting defaults that are seen as too expensive.

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11k people were offered a new job that had a 50% chance of doubling income for life, but it wasn't without risk, with an equal chance of it falling by either 20, 33 or 50%. Questioning started with the 33% gamble; if people took it, they were asked if they’d take the bigger 50% gamble too. But if they didn’t, they were asked about the smaller 20% one.

Results put people into four risk categories showing the majority were not willing to take any risk at all.

Focus on an improvement metric. 

We prefer the certainty of what we’re used to, so the benefits of switching to a new product need to feel substantial.

Outline a goal (relative performance, efficiency etc.) to anchor your product strategy around.

Doing so will reduce uncertainty and boost comparisons against better-known, lower risk alternatives.

Offer a trial or free sample...

...to create familiarity and reduce the risk around a new product.

This sets the cost of new product usage at zero, during which the consumer will adjust their future preferences.

Utilize your brand umbrella.

For any new sub-brands, reduce risk by clearly indicating the relationship to existing, familiar brands you own (Erdem, 1998).  

Product brands take note. Risk aversion is higher for material purchases than for experiential ones such as restaurant meals or holidays (Roche et al., 2015).

108 people were told they were the head of an airline that was either 90% complete on a $10m plane project, or shown an equivalent $1m proposal to research and develop this plane. In both cases, a competitor had created a similar plane of superior quality.

In either case, should they still invest the $1m? Those in the 90% sunk cost condition were far more likely to keep on spending than those who had yet to invest anything.

Remind consumers of past personal efforts or the amount of time spent with the brand to increase feelings of a sunk cost. Reframing past efforts as incomplete or as ongoing progress will also induce the effect and assist sales. 

Test your product ideas sooner using a more agile product methodology. This will minimize time, cost and effort wasted on unproven potential failures to which you will become increasingly attached, especially if you’re personally accountable for their success.

Take 15 mins for mindfulness practice - focusing on the present moment and less on the past and future - to increase your resistance to the Sunk Cost bias. (Hafenbrack et al., 2013). Check out the Headspace app.