Human psychology is always an interesting topic for virtually everyone as we try to understand the decisions behind your friends, family, partners, colleagues and the general public. When it comes to online marketing where we try to influence people on a mass scale, we should understand how people would be influenced by multitude of factors.
Cognitive biases are psychological biases that we do not consciously recognize, thus they exist in everyday of our life. By avoiding them at our best, we can be a better decision maker and thinker. But it does require extremely seamless, conscious attentions to them at any moment. This is very difficult. But when we put into an online marketing perspective, we have a lot more buffer time to alertly avoid it – or even utilize it to achieve our marketing purpose. Research on this topic is quickly developing. Now, more than dozens of cognitive biases are recognized. But we can start with the most common 5 cognitive biases to see its strength on impacting our decision making process.Confirmation bias – It happens when you look for supporting evidence for your ideas and beliefs.
1. It limits your ability to look outside the support evidence. You dismiss subconsciously all the evidence that negates your ideas because of your passion and bias.
2. The bandwagon effect – We like to do what others are doing. As it becomes more popular, more people try to do the same.
This is the main contributor to group behavior. When something is seen on a small group of people, others would subconsciously build up the desire to do the same.
3. Loss aversion – It happens when you have already put a lot of time, money or effort into a thing.
This bias tricks you into a vicious cycle. Because you have already done a so much on it, you insist on completing it regardless even though the chance is slim or it is just not worthwhile anymore. It happens particularly in entrepreneurs.
4. Framing effect – How things are framed in a positive or negative way will impact the reception of audience.
Consider this scenario:
A) This investment offered positive return 7 out of 10 years.
B) This investment only exposed to negative return 3 out of 10 years.
Both statements imply exactly the same meaning. But most people would choose option A because of how it is framed to appeal investors.
5. Social proof – we tend to believe this is right to follow the patterns of majority, especially when we are undecided.
The fact that the majority does something does not mean to do it is right. But many people just follow it because we are social animals.
Mastering cognitive biases will definitely help you to make it to your advantage when preparing online marketing strategies. If you can master it in daily life, people will see you from an entirely new angle. (Do be devious though!)