Human Brain, Rationality & Design: Psychology of eCommerce
Are you rational? Do you evaluate all of the choices available before making your decision? If the answer is yes, then please think about this:
- What toothpaste did you use today? How did you make that choice? Did you evaluate all the choices available in the market before purchasing it? Did you go through the ingredients and analyse what’s best for you?
- What did you have in breakfast today? How did you make that choice? Did you go through all the breakfast options available and apply the SWOT analysis? Did you even give it a thought?
I bet none of you spend more than a few seconds to make these decisions and I am sure most of you don't even give a damn about it. You see, none of us are truly rational. If we approach every choice in life in a truly rational way, we’d never get anything done.
The Appearance of Rationality
We all think we’re rational, sensible people who weigh up the choices and make careful decisions. Yet, that’s not how we rational sapiens actually work. We may give a moment to debate between a couple of toothpaste or breakfast options, but we give no more thought to it than that. The truth is that the vast majority of our decision making is processed at a sub-rational and subconscious level. Many of our decisions are made on autopilot mode; we fall out of bed, clean our teeth, walk into the kitchen, put some bread in the toaster and make a cup of tea. It’s just a routine. Yours may be different from mine, but it’s the only way we can cope with the vast array of choices we make every day.
The Nobel Prize-winning Israeli economist, behaviourist, psychologist and the writer of the bestselling book Thinking Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman said:
“We think, each of us, that we’re much more rational than we are. And we think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it’s the other way around. We believe in the reasons because we’ve already made the decision”
Is the same true for decisions we make online?
Pause for a second and think what is the last thing you bought recently (Online)? or How did you buy the phone/laptop/tab on which you are reading this article (if you bought it online)? How did you make that decision? Was it a purely rational one? How much time did you actually spend analysing all the products available online, reading about all the different components and technology that the product in-houses and then comparing them in light of your requirements and budgets? Wasn’t your decision influenced by the people around you(more specifically your family & friends) using the same product or product brand image or your loyalty towards that particular brand? If you went through the reviews or comparison videos online how did you believe them or analyse their vested interest if any?
After all, phone or laptop is a big purchasing decision for many of us but we will not spend months researching about it and our decision will be influenced by people reviews & recommendation; our perception of the brand; site’s design, the placement of products, and the way the company has presented them to you.
Choosing a phone/laptop feels like a rational choice. In truth, it’s not really, at least not for the vast majority of us. Except for those who are mighty Sheldon Lee Cooper of Big Bang Theory.
Most of the decision are made in parts of the mind that we don’t have any way to access consciously.
The biggest conscious action is executing that decision, not making it.
As a designer, we don’t trick our users into doing what we want them to; instead, we show our options in a manner that helps them make decisions in a natural way that will benefit them, first, and then -by the effect of their actions -us.
So how do we — the rational & pragmatic species on earth make decisions or choices?
First, Let’s Understand Our Brain
Our brain is actually a set of three distinct components:
- The Old Brain or Lizard Brain or Primal Brain — Deals with Primal decision making
- The Mid Brain or Emotional Brain — Deals with emotions
- The New Brain or Rational Brain — Deals with rational decision making
And each of these components influences the way we make decisions.
The Old Brain
The old brain is all about primal decision making. It takes care of all the details of running a body that we can’t handle consciously. Breathing, circulation, digestion, etc. all have the old brain’s full attention. It’s got the caretaker’s job. It also manages our primal urges: the need for shelter, the need for safety, the need for food and drink, and of course — the need for sex. It explains why so many sales campaigns offer sexualized images to sell products; if we can convince users they will feel safe and attractive, we’re tapping directly into the old brain. Done in the right way, that can influence their decisions regarding calls to action.
The old brain is tasked with managing the most basic priority — our safety. It’s where the “fight, flight or freeze” response is triggered.
All animals have an old brain; it takes care of all the details of running a body that we can’t handle consciously. Breathing, circulation, digestion, etc.
It also manages our primal urges: the need for shelter, the need for safety, the need for food and drink, and — of course — the need for sex.
“The lizard brain is hungry, scared, angry, and horny. The lizard brain only wants to eat and be safe. The lizard brain will fight (to the death) if it has to, but would rather run away. It likes a vendetta and has no trouble getting angry.” ~Seth Godin, best-selling author and entrepreneur
But why it matters to online sales?
It matters because if you can tap into the primal drivers, you can exert a huge influence over the conscious mind.
Online sales can be driven by the desire for safety. We feel safe when we are in familiar surroundings; when we feel safe, we’re more likely to buy than when we feel threatened.
Sex also plays a part in decision making. We’re all somewhat less rational when trying to impress a potential mate than when we are in the office.
The Mid Brain
The Midbrain or more appropriately “emotional brain” as it’s truly in charge of our emotional responses. Most of the time, our emotions drive us rather than the other way around.
The midbrain consists of the limbic system(The limbic system is a set of structures in the brain that deal with emotions and memory, which includes the amygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus and hippocampus.
Amygdala is responsible for some of our basic emotional responses and making a value judgement on our behalf.
Value judgements are the brain’s shortcut to decision making, instead of using a decision-making process like a SWOT analysis. When you meet someone new, it takes barely a second before you decide if you could like this person or not. That’s a value judgement and your amygdala is in action.
The thalamus, on the other hand, is purely concerned with emotions: joy, grief, passion, etc.
The midbrain also deals with reward. It releases dopamine, the substance which makes us feel good when we eat chocolate or smoke cigarette. It’s the body’s way of saying “well done” otherwise why would a rational human being smoke?
Feelings of happiness, contentment, love, etc. are feelings which make us more likely to want to commit to something. Feelings of sadness, anger, hatred, etc. are also feelings which might make us more likely to commit to something. If you don’t believe the last statement, ask yourself, “What about charitable donations?” Is it more likely that someone who is perfectly happy with the world around him will donate to a famine appeal when asked, or for someone who is distressed by the plight of starving children will donate? Behind every positive donation lies a negative reality that acted as a spur.
“Bad news sells because the amygdala is always looking for something to fear” ~Peter Diamandis, Greek-American Engineer, physician, entrepreneur and author of “Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
The New Brain
“Rational behaviour requires theory. Reactive behaviour requires only reflex action” ~ William Edwards Deeming, Statistician, Economist, Professor, Management Consultant and Author
The new brain which is also called the rational brain is the part of the brain where rational decisions are made. It has been studied that our rational brain is very good at providing a rational explanation for the choices we have already made (in the instinctive and emotional part of the brain) in retrospect.
But being said so, the new brain is not irrelevant when it comes to purchasing online. Why? It doesn’t matter if our customers are making a rational decision or are justifying their purchase after the fact. What matters is that the new brain should feel involved in the process. The more rational the decision appears to be, the more easily it will sit with the new brain and your customer will be happier in justifying if asked, “Why did you buy that rather than something else?”
When you sell to all parts of the brain, your clients will have an easy time making purchasing decisions. You convince their old brains that their decisions are safe (and possibly throw in a little sex appeal to make those decisions even easier). You convince the emotional part of the brain (the midbrain) that one decision, in particular, will make the purchaser happier. Then you enable the new brain to justify the purchase in retrospect.
Let’s see a few examples of how eCommerce is harnessing this knowledge
Buy it Now — The instant sales technique
How often do you see this kind of highlighted messages on your favourite eCommerce sites like — Flipkart or Amazon despite their humongous size? Many of their items will be flagged as “Hurry, the last one in stock” or “Hurry, only 4 left”. Why do they show these messages and highlight them in red colour? Do you ever wonder how often this information is actually correct or it’s just a sales technique? You will also find many of their items flagged as “Special Discount ends in X hours” or “Order in X hours and get it delivered free by tomorrow”. So the question is why do they do it? The scarcity information “Hurry, only X left” & time-bound discounts “Special Discount ends in X hours” triggers your amygdala to fear — the fear of loss & discounts respectively and if you click on the buy now it makes your emotional brain happy by releasing the dopamine- Yes! You have got it. Selling an instant experience bypasses the rational mind and speaks to our emotions and this is the principle working here— “Order in X hours and get it delivered free by tomorrow”. Also, This encourages your customer to make a decision now — instead of waiting to decide later, during which time they may cool off on your offering, having found a better deal elsewhere or even changed their mind altogether about making a purchase. Of course, you can’t overplay this card. If you make everything on your website scarce, people are going to start feeling manipulated.
Scarcity — Fear of missing out is a powerful sales tool for Apple
Have you ever heard of an Apple launch where there’s been an unlimited supply of new hardware on day one? No, of course, you haven’t. In fact, whenever we read about an Apple product launch, a queue of eager fans are camping outside Apple stores overnight in order to snag one of the new exciting devices. Scarcity is a powerful sales tool for Apple. If Apple’s customers want to be amongst the first to get their hands on a new toy, they have to be prepared to go to extreme lengths in order to get one. Also, these customers pay more for the premium feeling because once the product is available in abundance everywhere, the price goes down.
Conclusion
The above two examples give a glimpse of how eCommerce sites are understanding the users/consumers psychology and implementing those key understanding in their websites through design. There’s a lot for us — as an Experience Designer to understand. For example: How user ratings & reviews (a kind of social validation) increases other users trust in the product or service on offer?; How invoking the privilege in the prospective customer would gain their commitment and drive the sale?; Why avoiding logic and making it simple for the user on the product/service page to make a decision is better? So, as a UX designer, it’s always better to understand these user psychology and implement it in our design wherever it’s relevant. Some of you might be wondering is it ethical to do? I am wondering too. Please let me know your thoughts by commenting below.
Thank you for your time. I would love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to comment.
P.S.: I completed a course — “Psychology of E-Commerce: How to Sell Online” on Interaction Design Foundation(IDF) and thought of sharing some of my learnings which I found interesting in form of this article.
If you are interested in learning this full course please follow the below link and you will get 2 months of free IDF membership.
Special Thanks to Aditi Sit for co-editing this article and to
& Saurabh for your valuable feedback.