Science of persuasion: Popcorn philosophy
Columns / 01 March 2010
Popcorn philosophy. The humble cinema snack offers a cracking insight into how to change people's buying habits, whether you're launching products or introducing new business processes, writes Steve Martin
Imagine you’ve decided to visit your local cinema. As the film begins, you start working on your box of popcorn. A short time later, the box is empty.
Few people would be surprised to learn that features such as how fresh and tasty the popcorn was, along with its alluring ‘just popped smell’, were primarily responsible for its rapid consumption.
However, the results of a recent study suggest it may not be a product’s features that influence consumption at all. Instead, a different, non-product related factor may be responsible. And far from just providing insights into popcorn consumption, the study offers advice to managers on how to influence others to change or win new business.
Behavioural researchers David Neal and Wendy Wood from the University of Southern California arranged for customers to be given drinks and popcorn as they entered their local cinema.
What the customers didn’t know was that half were given a box of fresh popcorn and half were given popcorn that was a week old (and decidedly stale). The researchers also identified which of the cinema goers were regular popcorn purchasers and which purchased it only occasionally.
The occasional buyers said they liked the stale version less and they ate less of it than those given fresh popcorn. However, the customers who regularly purchased popcorn ate just as much of it as those given the fresh variety, even though they said they disliked the stale version.
Dining in the dark
The researchers found that this habitual eating of popcorn only occurred in cinemas. In other words, when the study was replicated in non-cinema environments, the habitual eaters reacted in exactly the same way as the non-habitual eaters – they ate significantly less of the stale popcorn.
Managers wanting to influence changes in working practices may find it useful to make some contextual changes first. For example, reorganising seating arrangements in the office or painting the wall a different colour may be enough to provide a new cue that helps eliminate an older habit and replace it with a more useful new one
Steve Martin, business psychologist
This study demonstrates an important factor when it comes to understanding how people are influenced and persuaded.
Often a behaviour is activated not because of an individual’s desire to achieve a particular goal but because the specific environment or context they find themselves in triggers such behaviour. When sitting in a cinema, regular popcorn eaters ate just as much unappetising popcorn because they were sitting in a cinema.
Indeed, recent neuroscience studies support the idea that a specific cue can activate a resulting behaviour regardless of whether this achieves a desired goal. It has been shown that as much as 45% of an individual’s behaviours and actions are repeated daily, usually in the same context and environment.
As a result, habits are common barriers that managers face when trying to influence change. For example, a company looking to persuade consumers to try a new line of products might experience two challenges. The first is how they can present their products to consumers in the most attractive and persuasive way. The second is how to overcome consumers’ current purchasing habits.
Similarly managers looking to influence and change working practices may encounter resistance due to deeply entrenched habits
and behaviours.
People are most likely to rely on habits and repeated behaviours when they find themselves distracted, time pressured and overloaded with information – features that are all too common in today’s hectic business environment.
Changing behaviour
So how can companies persuade habitual consumers to switch to their new product? And what can managers do to ensure that new policies and working practices are successfully executed and not destined to fail due to reliance on outdated but habitual behaviours? There are some clear pointers for those looking to influence a lasting change in behaviour.
Firstly, encourage the voluntary statement of goals and intentions. This will promote people’s control and ownership of their goals. Set up a self-monitoring process.
People should be urged to record their successes each time they perform a new behaviour. Although it is not necessary to publicly acknowledge these successes, studies into behavioural consistency suggest that the best chance of long-standing change occurs when these commitments and actions are made public.
Change cues. Organisations should alter or remove any context or cues that are likely to activate an unwanted behaviour. In the case of a company seeking to influence consumers to try a new range of products, this might include incentivising customers to shop at different times of the day, visit an area of the store they don’t routinely walk through or try a different branch.
Managers wanting to influence changes in working practices may find it useful to make some contextual changes first. For example, reorganising seating arrangements in the office or painting the wall a different colour may be enough to provide a new cue that helps eliminate an older habit and replace it with a more useful new one.
Focus on one change at a time. People are most likely to rely on past habitual behaviours if they are distracted, under time pressure and cognitively overloaded, so to effect change any distractions should be minimised wherever this is possible. This may require prioritising certain activities and initiatives or even putting some on hold so that ample time can be devoted to change – one change at a time.
The writer and poet Samuel Johnson said: “The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”
Although habits are often very strong, replacing the links in the chain that activate unwanted behaviours with more helpful ones can be an important part of any successful influence strategy.