Articles (page 35)

Dunbar's 150 cannot be derived the way it was derived. The layered structure underneath it was then confirmed on 185,000 people, and the outermost layer is about 150. Both of those are true and…

Friction is not the enemy. Asymmetric friction is, and it is measurable without any psychology at all. Count the steps in and count the steps out.

Social connection predicts how long people live, at a size comparable to established risk factors. Whether the active half is being alone or feeling lonely is a real dispute, and the two best…

The third option on a pricing page is often there to lose. The effect is real, it is narrower than the marketing books say, and the place it works best is exactly where modern shopping happens.

Bigger is usually cheaper per unit, and usually is not a rule. The quantity surcharge is mostly an artefact of promotions, which is why it keeps happening without anybody deciding to mislead you.

Psychology audited itself in 2015 and a third of the findings did not come back. The story stops there in most coverage. It is the next decade, and what survived, that tells you how to read a…

Across 1,272 products in 120 categories, average user ratings did not converge with objective quality measures. People weight them heavily anyway, and fail to discount them when the sample is too…

You add four pounds of something to avoid a four pound delivery charge and feel like you have saved money. The economics of why shops split a price this way is better understood than the psychology…

Scarcity works when it carries a social signal, and which cue works depends on what is being sold. A 1975 cookie jar and a meta-analysis of 131 studies ask different questions about it, and only one…