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Archive status:
Open
Declassified
1,015 / 10,000
Clearance
Visitor
1,015 entries declassified
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12 / 12
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No visual on file
Framing Effects
Entry #0501
Ninety per cent lean and ten per cent fat describe the same thing, and the two descriptions produce measurably different judgements.
The hidden part
#0501
The same fact stated from the favourable end is not the same message. Both halves are true; only one is offered.
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No visual on file
Brand Language
Entry #0480
Natural is among the most valuable words on a label and one of the least defined, and the vacuum is exactly what makes it worth printing.
The hidden part
#0480
The most commercially valuable words are the ones with no agreed test for whether they are true.
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No visual on file
Market Signals
Entry #0402
Part of a qualification’s value comes from what finishing it proves about the person, rather than from what the person learned inside it.
The hidden part
#0402
A credential can be worth paying for even where the teaching is not, provided it is hard to obtain.
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No visual on file
Incentive Design
Entry #0376
Adding money to a voluntary act can reduce how often it is performed, because the payment replaces the reason people were doing it at all.
The hidden part
#0376
A payment does not only add a motive. It can delete the one that was already there.
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No visual on file
Price Psychology
Entry #0351
Prices ending in nine still outsell round neighbours, and the reason is not that shoppers are fooled about the total but how the number is read.
The hidden part
#0351
A price is read left to right and encoded before it is finished, so the first digit does most of the work.
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No visual on file
Negotiation Frames
Entry #0330
Meeting in the middle sounds fair, but the middle is computed from the two openings, which hands the result to whoever opened further out.
The hidden part
#0330
A fair-looking rule applied to unfair inputs launders the asymmetry instead of removing it.
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No visual on file
Negotiation Frames
Entry #0328
Bargaining strength comes mostly from what you will do if there is no agreement, and that is settled before anyone sits down at the table.
The hidden part
#0328
Your leverage is the value of your best outside option, not the strength of your arguments.
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No visual on file
Habit Loops
Entry #0309
People who score highest on self-control report resisting fewer temptations rather than winning more fights. The difference was arranged in advance.
The hidden part
#0309
Self-control measured as struggle predicts less than self-control arranged as the absence of struggle.
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No visual on file
Habit Loops
Entry #0301
Habits are triggered by stable context rather than renewed intention, which is why identical resolve produces different behaviour in different rooms.
The hidden part
#0301
Behaviour that repeats is usually cued rather than chosen. Change the cue and the choice reappears.
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No visual on file
Platform Mechanics
Entry #0283
Any measure good enough to manage by is good enough to game, and the gaming arrives through exactly the same channel as the improvement.
The hidden part
#0283
A measure used as a target stops describing the thing it was chosen to describe.
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No visual on file
Persuasion Systems
Entry #0255
Authority is read off uniforms, titles, desks and clipboards long before any claim is examined, and the signal keeps working when the claim is absent.
The hidden part
#0255
Authority is inferred from props, and props can be acquired far more cheaply than expertise.
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No visual on file
Choice Design
Entry #0226
Interfaces rarely hide the option you came for. They make it quiet, and visual weight decides the click long before the wording is read.
The hidden part
#0226
The cheapest way to change a decision is not to remove an option but to lower its contrast.
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