Monthly Archives: August 2013

Let me say straight away that I’m not talking about wriggly things in the garden that are doing good things for soil quality. I’m referring to the measure of voter approval that is sometimes displayed during election debates. In the last UK general election we had a television debate amongst the three main party leaders for the first time. As has happened elsewhere, the broadcasters added three lines on the screen, one for each candidate, and plotted a ‘sample’ of voters satisfaction with the points being made by the politicians in real time. You might think that in something as significant as the leadership of one’s country people would be keen to make their own informed opinion. But as has been shown in numerous other studies, we can’t help but be influenced by the knowledge of what others are doing or what we believe they’re thinking. This was demonstrated in […]

In a previous article, written for this website by David Parnell, he explained that thinking burns glucose and that, it might well be beneficial for retailers to provide customers with access to a small energy boost, perhaps a mint or drink, to help them stay energised for shopping. A new study, whilst not looking at consumers, adds a new dimension to this advice and reinforces its importance for consumer behaviour. It comes from research that has been conducted looking at sentencing patterns of judges. It’s another example of the extent to which we’re nowhere near as rational as we like to tell ourselves. Much as I would like to believe that a judge’s sentence is based on an objective assessment of the facts of the case and a dispassionate application of the relevant laws and sentencing guidelines, the evidence suggests otherwise. A researcher examined more than 1000 parole board hearings […]

In a previous article, written for this website by David Parnell, he explained that thinking burns glucose and that, it might well be beneficial for retailers to provide customers with access to a small energy boost, perhaps a mint or drink, to help them stay energised for shopping. A new study, whilst not looking at consumers, adds a new dimension to this advice and reinforces its importance for consumer behaviour. It comes from research that has been conducted looking at sentencing patterns of judges. It’s another example of the extent to which we’re nowhere near as rational as we like to tell ourselves. Much as I would like to believe that a judge’s sentence is based on an objective assessment of the facts of the case and a dispassionate application of the relevant laws and sentencing guidelines, the evidence suggests otherwise. A researcher examined more than 1000 parole board hearings […]

Last week, my mobile phone provider didn’t send me a SIM card they had promised. In my conversation with the call centre I explained that visiting their store wasn’t a good use of my time; something they might have guessed from my initial decision to have them post the card to me. They said they couldn’t get it to me by the promised date any more (the following day). I was cross. The call centre person decided that it would be a good idea to recap on exactly what she and I had done up to that point. I politely interrupted her and pointed out that, I was getting the impression I valued my time quite a lot more highly than the phone company. I didn’t want a potted history of my (bad) recent experience, I wanted a solution. Oblivious to this and presumably because of some awful training, the […]