RICHARD AND CASS

Insights from the architecture of choice reveal two opportunities for the innovator based on basic psychology and the fact that people have two distinctive thinking styles that they flip between;

• Reflective thinking (aka “Systematic”, “Central”, “System 2” thought) tha...

• Loss Aversion: We prefer not to lose rather than gain
• Myopia: We make choices based on short term gain, often at long-term costs
• Conformity: We tend to make choices to conform with the behaviour and expectations of others
• Anchoring Bias: Choosing by relying too heavil...

The authorities at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam have etched the image of a black housefly into each urinal in the men's room. Men usually don't pay much attention to where they aim but if they see a target, their attention and accuracy increases.

The natural urge is to aim (and drown the fl...

iNcentives - The right incentives for the right people enable good decision-making processes.

Understand Mappings is how people can better relate to the consequences of different decision pathways

Defaults - People often leave the def...

A choice architect is one who indirectly influences the choices other people make. They are entitled to the responsibility for organizing the context in which people make decisions. 

If you design the ballot the voters use it to choose candidates or design ...

For a given choice there is a default option, an option that will obtain if the chooser does nothing, then we can expect a large number of people to end up with that option. 

Automatic renewal for magazine subscriptions is a classic example.

If the choice architect forces to choose th...

1. Either play on the fallacies and biases that pattern our automatic (lazy) thinking (see list further down),
2. Or jolt people into reflective thinking by providing them with a new way of thinking about something