Surely this only works on idiots?

⬆ ⬆ ⬆ ⬆

Surprisingly, this is the type of comment I love.

"Surely this only works on idiots?" 😲

The comment was in response to a clip I'd posted about how decimals and commas elongate a number.

For example:

50,000.00

50,000

50000

50k

In the clip I show an ad promoting a $50k cash giveaway and make the point that it would have been more impressive (though less poetic) had they used $50,000.00.

It's known as Magnitude Representation (Coulter, Choi and Munroe, 2011).

So why do I love comments like that?

Because frankly, that would be my response, too.

If I didn't immerse myself in behavioural studies, I would also assume people make purely rational decisions and those that didn't were idiots.

And that's what's so revealing about behavioural science.

We are fallible decision makers. But predictable ones.

➡ And that's who you should be designing comms, workplaces, products and experiences for.