Recently, I noted that I had just finished reading a book for our book club—The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind by Jonah Berger (Simon & Shuster Paperbacks, New York (2020)) (“Catalyst”). The book’s thesis is how to get people to change their minds through self-persuasion. To do this, one must “remove[] roadblocks and lower[] the barriers that keep people from taking action” (Id. at 7) or act as a catalyst.
The author identifies five principles: Reaction, Endowment, Distance, Uncertainty, and Corroborating Evidence (Id. at 11-14). I discussed Distance in a recent blog. I will discuss uncertainty this week and devote a subsequent blog to the remaining principle.
The notion of “uncertainty” involves “risk aversion”; “Give people a choice between a certain good thing and an uncertain but potentially better thing and see what they pick.” (Id. at 136.). Chances are they will pick the sure thing Why? People are risk averse. “ They like knowing what they are getting, and as long as what they are getting is positive, they prefer sure things to risky ones.” (Id. at 137.)
The author labels this tendency to devalue uncertain things as the “uncertainty tax.” (Id.) People do not like change, and change always involves uncertainty. The more ambiguous a situation or a product is, the more uncertain it is and, thus, the less valuable it is. (Id. at 140.) Simply put, people like to stick with the status quo. (Id at 142.)
One way to get people to change is “trialability”; make it easy for someone to test or experience the “new” thing on a limited basis (Id. at 145.) “The easier it is to try something, the more people will use it and the faster it catches on.” (Id. at 146). Trialability lowers the uncertainty. (Id.)
How do we provide “trialability”? (1) harness freemium, (2) reduce upfront costs, (3) drive discovery, and (4) make it reversible. (Id.)
By “freemium,” the author refers to initially free products, but one can upgrade to a premium. He uses the example of Dropbox (although Zoom also comes to mind.). Dropbox has a “free version,” but if one wants more storage, one has to pay. Offering a free version allows one to try it out without risk of loss (aka risk aversion), and finding it helpful, the person will then upgrade to a paid or premium version. (Id at 147-8.)
A second way is to reduce “upfront costs.” This is where “free shipping” comes in. When one sees a product online, they are uncertain if they really want it, but “free shipping” reduces the uncertainty. So does “free returns.” People become more comfortable ordering online if they are not paying the shipping costs both to receive the product and to return it. (Id. at 151-158.)
A third way is to drive discovery: by giving out free samples of anything, be it toothpaste or new products at supermarkets, manufacturers induce people to try a product, and lo and behold, they may like it and switch. (Id. at 158-161.) The author gives an example of a car manufacturer who made arrangements with a hotel chain to use their vehicles for livery service. The guests were chauffeured in the cars; many found they liked the ride and bought one. (Id. at 159-160.). However, for the livery service experience, the guests would have given that vehicle a different thought.
The final way is to make it “reversible.” By this, the author means to make the decision easy to reverse. One example is to allow a potential dog owner to take a dog from a rescue center for two weeks to see if they like owning and caring for a dog. If it works out, fine. If not, the potential owner can return the dog to the rescue center (much to the dog’s chagrin!). Think of the many advertisements offering a free trial for 30,60 days; if you do not like it, you are free to return it and get your money back, even if you have used up all of the product in the jar! (Id. at 162-169.). Chances are, once people acquire the product, they will keep it due 165-166.)to the “endowment effect. “ People value a product more once they own it, and the longer they are, the more attached they become to it, making it harder to give it up. (Id at 165-166.). Thus, while they may pay $1.00 to buy a product if they are asked to sell it, they will ask $3.00 (or some other higher price), even though they just acquired it.
Reduce the uncertainty and risk by making it easy to change, and you will succeed in getting people to change their minds.
… Just something to think about.
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