Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense

by Rory Sutherland

Many apparent paradoxes of consumer behaviour are best explained by similar mental mechanisms. A few years ago we discovered that men were reluctant to order a cocktail in a bar – in part because they had no foreknowledge of the glass in which it would be served. If they thought there was even a slight chance that it would arrive in a hollowed out pineapple, they would order a beer instead. One remedy was to put illustrations or pictures of the drinks on the menu; some trendy venues have since solved the problem by serving all their cocktails in mason jars. The same sort of mental calculus explains why it is so difficult to get people to move their current account from one bank to another paying a higher rate of interest, or to shift their broadband provision. A 1 per cent chance of a nightmarish experience dwarfs a 99 per cent chance of a 5 per cent gain.