some people would push you off a cliff
just to touch you and say they saved
your life what’s worse than that is that
some would actually believe them and
depending on the person most of us here
probably would so what would you call
this manipulation I think we can broadly
agree on that what we would probably
struggle to reach a consensus on though
is the nature of that manipulation is it
deceitful is it rude or just plain
admirable whatever adjective we choose
to agree with the simple truth is this
the chief purpose of manipulation is to
bypass rationality so let’s mean to be
rational when you are being rational
your decisions are motivated by logic
rather than impulse and emotion and
these are exactly the kind of choices
economics expects humans to make but we
are constantly being pressed to make
choices that defy our intrinsic sense of
rationality making us the plaything of
easy manipulation to understand this
better let’s go back in time
what’s history’s favorite example of
manipulation propaganda let’s add a
pinch of truth to it sprinkle it with
commercialism and fire it up with a
brand name what do we have now
advertising an industry based around
shaping how people think about their
choices now this can be approached from
two different angles you can use
advertising to inform or you can use it
to persuade and while providing
information can often by itself be
persuasive most of the times it’s not
enough and that’s where the emotional
appeal comes in and forces us to pick
heart over mind now this behind me shows
us a straightforward relationship
in other words how it’s meant to be done
buyers are provided with information
which in turn drives their rational
choice but now we know that it’s not
that easy hence the second visual our
choice is framed by this glittering
gilded idea that appeals more to our gut
or instinct rather than our rationality
what’s significant here is that the
actual product information is outside of
this frame and thus far less important
to our decision-making here comes the
problem in economic jargon consumers are
expected to have access to true and
perfect information but how many of us
here are willing to look outside the
frame for this information truth is not
a lot of us
now last week I bought a hand sanitizer
and just said every time any of us go
out to buy something I had to make a
choice a choice between two different
brands of sanitizers one of them looked
like this and the other looked a bit
like this so I went out there and I made
the seemingly rational choice I bet the
one that told me it kills 99.99% of the
germs on my hands but was this really
rational I had no way of knowing if this
was an accurate figure in fact it would
have been easier for me to test the
lavender scent rather than test of the
sanitizer actually killed 99.99% of
germs but there’s a certain
believability about numbers
well someone tells you for example that
45% of our closet consists of clothes
you will never wear we are likely to
believe them simply because numbers are
concrete and so we take them to be
now that was not a fact and
believe it or not there is an actual
figure for the percentage of our clothes
we actually wear but the point is we are
easily manipulated by numbers and
advertisers they capitalize on that they
assume that we don’t require the facts
backing up the 99.99% to make our choice
while that would be the real basis for a
rational consumer to decide to buy the
product so where is all of this leading
to the thing is we need adverts to help
us make our choices in market selling
similar products we need a sense of
direction when deciding to buy something
and that’s precisely what adverse
provide us with and why we do possess
rationality it is bounded rationality
this means that we do not have infinite
decision-making abilities and at some
point we need something more than just
objective information to help us make
our choices so there you have it we are
being manipulated by adverts but without
that manipulation we would never be able
to make a choice Cerreta we go from here
the truth is know where we can stay
exactly where we are doing exactly what
we do every day but now just a bit
differently the problem isn’t getting
pushed off the cliff the problem is
believing the person who said they saved
your life when they were the ones to
push you off we should focus not on
resisting the manipulation of
advertising but first on knowing that
manipulation awareness is the key unless
we become aware of emotional advertising
we can stop reflect and make better
choices and we can start taking our
first steps to practicing full
rationality in all our choices every day
thank you
[Applause]
just to touch you and say they saved
your life what’s worse than that is that
some would actually believe them and
depending on the person most of us here
probably would so what would you call
this manipulation I think we can broadly
agree on that what we would probably
struggle to reach a consensus on though
is the nature of that manipulation is it
deceitful is it rude or just plain
admirable whatever adjective we choose
to agree with the simple truth is this
the chief purpose of manipulation is to
bypass rationality so let’s mean to be
rational when you are being rational
your decisions are motivated by logic
rather than impulse and emotion and
these are exactly the kind of choices
economics expects humans to make but we
are constantly being pressed to make
choices that defy our intrinsic sense of
rationality making us the plaything of
easy manipulation to understand this
better let’s go back in time
what’s history’s favorite example of
manipulation propaganda let’s add a
pinch of truth to it sprinkle it with
commercialism and fire it up with a
brand name what do we have now
advertising an industry based around
shaping how people think about their
choices now this can be approached from
two different angles you can use
advertising to inform or you can use it
to persuade and while providing
information can often by itself be
persuasive most of the times it’s not
enough and that’s where the emotional
appeal comes in and forces us to pick
heart over mind now this behind me shows
us a straightforward relationship
in other words how it’s meant to be done
buyers are provided with information
which in turn drives their rational
choice but now we know that it’s not
that easy hence the second visual our
choice is framed by this glittering
gilded idea that appeals more to our gut
or instinct rather than our rationality
what’s significant here is that the
actual product information is outside of
this frame and thus far less important
to our decision-making here comes the
problem in economic jargon consumers are
expected to have access to true and
perfect information but how many of us
here are willing to look outside the
frame for this information truth is not
a lot of us
now last week I bought a hand sanitizer
and just said every time any of us go
out to buy something I had to make a
choice a choice between two different
brands of sanitizers one of them looked
like this and the other looked a bit
like this so I went out there and I made
the seemingly rational choice I bet the
one that told me it kills 99.99% of the
germs on my hands but was this really
rational I had no way of knowing if this
was an accurate figure in fact it would
have been easier for me to test the
lavender scent rather than test of the
sanitizer actually killed 99.99% of
germs but there’s a certain
believability about numbers
well someone tells you for example that
45% of our closet consists of clothes
you will never wear we are likely to
believe them simply because numbers are
concrete and so we take them to be
now that was not a fact and
believe it or not there is an actual
figure for the percentage of our clothes
we actually wear but the point is we are
easily manipulated by numbers and
advertisers they capitalize on that they
assume that we don’t require the facts
backing up the 99.99% to make our choice
while that would be the real basis for a
rational consumer to decide to buy the
product so where is all of this leading
to the thing is we need adverts to help
us make our choices in market selling
similar products we need a sense of
direction when deciding to buy something
and that’s precisely what adverse
provide us with and why we do possess
rationality it is bounded rationality
this means that we do not have infinite
decision-making abilities and at some
point we need something more than just
objective information to help us make
our choices so there you have it we are
being manipulated by adverts but without
that manipulation we would never be able
to make a choice Cerreta we go from here
the truth is know where we can stay
exactly where we are doing exactly what
we do every day but now just a bit
differently the problem isn’t getting
pushed off the cliff the problem is
believing the person who said they saved
your life when they were the ones to
push you off we should focus not on
resisting the manipulation of
advertising but first on knowing that
manipulation awareness is the key unless
we become aware of emotional advertising
we can stop reflect and make better
choices and we can start taking our
first steps to practicing full
rationality in all our choices every day
thank you
[Applause]
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