6 Psychology Studies with Marketing Implications

Psychology is the study of human behavior, and there are very few jobs in the world that don’t have to do with human behavior. In no field is the overlap between psychological theories and real-world applications more apparent than marketing. The aim of marketing is to influence human behavior, and you can’t begin to do that if you don’t understand how humans behave.

Here are six landmark experiments that reveal key insights about human behavior and the psychology of marketing.

1. Regan’s Reciprocity Experiment

In 1971, Professor Dennis Regan at Cornell University demonstrated the power of the reciprocity principle in what was ostensibly an “art appreciation experiment.” In the experiment, subjects were asked to rate paintings with a partner, who was in reality a research assistant.

So what does this experiment tell us about marketing?

If you provide something of value to your customers or your website visitors, they will be far more likely to provide you with their business in return.

This concept is at the heart of inbound marketing. I offer you valuable content, and you feel obliged to return the favor in some way.

Reciprocity is also relevant for link-building and relationship-building. If I link to your website, you’ll feel more inclined to link to my website in return. If I re-tweet you, you’ll feel more inclined to re-tweet me. In short, effective marketing is all about exchange. If you give a little, you’ll get a little.

2. Freedman and Fraser’s Compliance Experiment

One of the first studies to demonstrate the foot-in-the-door technique was conducted in 1966 by Jonathan L. Freedman and Scott C. Fraser.

The researchers contacted California housewives by telephone and asked them if they would answer some questions about the household products they used. Three days later, they called again and asked if they could send a team of men over to go through their house for two hours to manually take account of all the cleaning products.

So what does this experiment tell us about marketing?

Don’t try to sell your potential customers on your product right away; get them to commit to a smaller request first, like filling out a contact form, and then progressively ask for more.

Nurturing a lead is a lot like nurturing a relationship. You wouldn’t ask someone to marry you on a first date. First, you get them to commit to seeing you again, then after a while to meet your friends or your parents. Slowly, you ask for greater and greater commitment until (maybe) the time comes to ask for a lifelong commitment.

Guiding leads through your sales funnel follows the same process. First, you get them to commit to giving you their contact information, then you ask them to subscribe to your blog or to follow you on social media. Eventually, these progressively larger commitments can lead to a sale.

The important thing is not to go for the gold right away. Get your foot in the door first, and work your way in from there.

3. Kahneman’s Framing Experiment

In a key experiment, Tversky and Kahneman split participants into two groups and asked them to choose between two treatments for 600 people infected with a deadly disease.

So what does this experiment tell us about marketing?

Context is everything. How you frame the information you present on your website or in your ads will change the way people react to it.

Obviously, you want to emphasize the positive effects of your product over the drawbacks (like cost). But more than that – consider the tone of the language you use on your website. If it’s very business-like, you’ll put your users in a business frame of mind, and they’ll act accordingly. If it’s more personal, they’ll be put in a casual frame of mind, and they’ll act differently.

The type of framing you choose will depend on your goals and on what you are aiming to achieve.

With your online advertising, consider varying the tone and the frame of your ads and conducting A/B testing to see which is more effective. A very slight language change can have a huge impact on the decision process.

4. Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler’s Loss Aversion Experiment

In a 1990 study, Daniel Kahneman, with colleagues Jack L. Knetsch and Richard H. Thaler, randomly assigned participants to either a “buyer” or “seller” group. The sellers were each given a mug and the buyers were given nothing.

In subsequent trades, the researchers found that the sellers required significantly more money to part with the mugs (around $7) than the buyers were willing to pay to acquire them (around $3).

So what does this experiment tell us about marketing?

No matter how good your product is, your customers’ fear of throwing away their money on it is always going to outweigh their desire to gain it.

There are several things you can do to help alleviate your customers’ aversion to parting with their money. For example, you can offer a risk-free trial period or a rebate.

For e-commerce, consider how you frame your transactions. Loss aversion implies that customers would rather avoid a $5 surcharge than getting a $5 discount.

Also, be careful when initially setting the price of your product. Price increases are far more likely to influence a customer’s decision to switch than price decreases.

5. Zajonc’s Mere Exposure Study

Robert Zajonc demonstrated the power of mere exposure in a famous experiment in 1968. He split subjects into two groups and showed them a series of meaningless Chinese characters. He then told the subjects that some of these symbols represented positive adjectives, and others represented negative adjectives.

The individuals consistently rated the symbols they had previously seen more positively than the symbols they had not seen. Moreover, after the experiment, the group that had been repeatedly exposed to certain characters reported being in a better mood than the control group.

So what does this experiment tell us about marketing?

You can increase the power of your brand simply by exposing people to it.

Advertising is one way to expose people to your brand, but it is by no means the only way. Blogging, social media, email marketing, podcasting – these are all great ways of getting your name out there.

The more presence you have, the more people will come to think positively of your company, and the more business you will get.

6. Asch’s Conformity Experiment

In a famous 1951 experiment, Solomon Asch showed that group pressure can override even the most obvious of facts. He had college students participate in a “perceptual” task along with a group of other students, who were in reality actors hired by Asch who knew the true aim of the experiment.

So what does this experiment tell us about marketing?

If social influence can cause people to ignore even the most obvious truths, you can bet it has an effect on how people evaluate your business.

The more social proof you can attach to your website and to your brand, the more new customers you will attract. This social proof can take the form of customer testimonials, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, or blog commenters. If people see that others are liking and interacting with your brand, they will be inclined to hop on the bandwagon.

It’s no coincidence that social signals now play a huge role in SEO. Google and other search engines recognize the value users place on the opinions and actions of other users.

If you want to attract new business, start by building up a community of followers on your blog and your social media profiles. Once you get the ball rolling, more people will start to hop on board and soon you’ll have a dedicated and growing base of brand advocates.

There’s no magic formula that will turn somebody who wants nothing to do with your business into a devoted fan, but these six experiments reveal fundamental truths about human nature that you can leverage to your advantage.

Once you understand how your customers behave and what their basic needs, fears, and biases are, you can start tailoring your marketing efforts around them.