Ever made a promise to yourself to exercise more, drink less, eat healthy?
You even made a great start (Fresh Start Effect, anyone?) with trips to the gym, switching to non-alcoholic beer, or remembering your 5 a day.
Stuck at the till and fancy a chocolate to go? You look around but there’s no chocolate in sight – instead packets of nuts and fruit line the checkout shelves. Okay, that’ll do. You pop through two packets of nuts and a piece of fruit to your basket and proceed to checkout.
Sound familiar?
Ask your grandparents about when they were younger. You’ll probably be told about how great everything was back then, especially compared to now. Or think back to 2019 – everything was amazing, we didn’t have to think about masks, and there wasn’t a daily COVID-19 infection or death rate broadcast on TV.
But were things really as good as we remember them? The cognitive bias rosy retrospection can help explain why we view the past with rose tinted glasses.
Have you ever won a £10 bet with a friend and only felt okay about it? Have you ever lost a £10 bet and felt completely defeated? Loss aversion can explain why.
Why are the answers to a test so obvious after you’ve taken that test? And why do you think of so many good comebacks after you’ve walked away from an argument? Many events, such as the Titanic and football not coming home, seem so predictable after they have happened. Why? The answer is simple: Hindsight Bias.
Imagine you want to learn how to play blackjack, and you have the chance to choose your teacher from one of three players. After watching them play several hands, player 1 has won £100, player 2 has won £50 and player 3 has lost £100. If you asked player one to teach you how to play because they won the most money, then you are falling prey to Outcome Bias. Did they win the most money because they made the best decisions? Or did they win the most money despite the poor quality of their decisions?
We are delighted and honoured to have been awarded The Mark of Excellence at this year’s CIPR Excellence Awards, in the New PR Consultancy of the Year Award category, which recognises the achievements, performance and excellent work over the last 12 months of a new PR consultancy.
A snapshot into motivations, influences and barriers faced by young audiences; by Lynn PR
Vaccine hesitancy is a complex issue. For many who are hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccines, concerns are not around the efficacy of vaccines in general. Rather, research from IFF (commissioned by the ONS, May 2021) demonstrates fears around safety because of how quickly the vaccines have been developed, and a lack of understanding about long-term side effects of the vaccines, especially as they have been in use for such a short time.
The BS Monitor is the first dedicated pulse-check of literacy and adoption of behavioural science in the PR and communications industry.
We often overestimate how quickly we can do something. You may think that’s just down to poor planning – and it often can be – but there’s more at play than just time management.
