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

by Rory Sutherland

One of my colleagues, the brilliant Tara Austin, had seen research that suggested that ‘Disney faces’ – large-eyed human faces with the proportions of young children – seemed to have a calming effect. Combining the two ideas, she created an experiment where shop shutters were painted with the faces of babies and toddlers by a local graffiti artist collective. By all measures, this seemed to reduce crime significantly;