Are you aware of the full range of ways in which behavioural science can help you and your organisation maximise success?

Yes? Even so, you’ll still need to think very carefully about how to convince key internal and external decision makers of the benefits of behavioural science.

One especially powerful approach to selling behavioural science is to get decision makers to acknowledge their own behavioural biases. This is an approach vividly recounted in this engaging, easily digestible book.

What is a behavioural bias?

A behavioural bias is a systematic error in thinking. With almost 200 biases having been documented by behavioural economists, there are a lot to choose from!

Closely linked to biases are heuristics. These are shortcut “rules of thumb” commonly used by humans to better navigate their way through complexity.

To understand which biases and heuristics business professionals are most influenced by, I asked three simple yes/no questions to over 200 attendees, as part of a recent Market Research Society webinar.

The three questions asked

First, I tested for recognition of the sunk cost bias. This describes how the more we invest in something, the harder it is to abandon. The following question was used:  

• Have you ever sat through to the end of a movie at the cinema you didn’t like?

Next, I tested recognition of the familiarity heuristic - a preference for things we already know over the unfamiliar. This time the question below was asked:

• Have you ever ordered a main course you’ve previously ordered while eating at your favourite restaurant?

Finally, recognition of the present bias was tested. This describes how we often give more weight to present rather than future rewards. Here the following question was used:

• Have you ever spent some or all of an unexpected monetary gift or bonus on a treat for now (rather than saving it for the future)?  

The results

• 96% of the 200+ attendees had personally experienced sunk cost bias – the more they were invested in something, the harder they found it to abandon

• 98% acknowledged the familiarity heuristic – a preference in their decision making for the known over the unfamiliar 

• 80% had exhibited the present bias – a preference for immediate rather than future rewards

So what?

These results provide real-life evidence of the power of behavioural biases and heuristics.

In trying to convince decision makers of the benefits of behavioural science, two will be especially useful to draw on: sunk cost bias (the tendency to stick with something unfavourable), and the familiarity heuristic (preference for the known over the unknown).