Some nudges work better than others.

If you have traveled lately you may have seen a sign in your hotel room urging you to reuse your towels.  What you may not know is that the wording of that sign greatly impacts whether or not you will comply. 

In a 2008 article published in The Journal for Consumer Research, three message variations were tested with the following results.

1. Reuse your towels because it is good for the environment = 35% compliance

2. Reuse your towels because other guests in this hotel do = 44% compliance

3. Reuse your towels because other hotel guests who stayed in this room did = 49% compliance

(Goldstein, Cialdini, Griskzvicius, 2008)

Nudging works because it uses what is called ‘social proof” or “consensus” to pressure non-participants into joining the crowd – something that most of us want to do.  And as the research demonstrates that the best result comes from the most specific reference to the individual’s immediate situation.

In The New York Times Visionaries section published on 5/27/18, Nathaniel Stinnett of Environmental Voter Project, was profiled based on his efforts to get the 16 million environmentalists who did not vote in 2014 midterm elections to show up this fall.  His weapon of choice? Nudges.  An example from a sample mailer – “Did you know that last time there was a City Council election, 87% of your block voted and you didn’t?”  Hmm.  That certainly demonstrates an understanding of the importance of matching a person’s immediate situation. (Schlossberg, 2018)

Similarly, when I recently considered booking an airline trip, the following message was added to the question about whether or not I wanted to buy trip insurance – “66,929 American Airlines customers protected their trip in the last 7 days.” 

Interesting, although I couldn’t help wondering how many customers they had in the past 7 days and where they were going.  Perhaps they would have been more persuasive if they had said “75% of the people who booked this trip in the past 6 months bought trip insurance.”  The research certainly suggests it.

Goldstein, N., Cialdini, R., Griskzvicius, V. (2008, October) A Room with a Viewpoint: Using Social Norms to Motivate Environmental Conservation in Hotels. Journal of Consumer Research. Retrieved June 13, 2018, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/586910?seq=6#page_scan_tab_contents

Schlossberg, T. (2018, May 24) Taking On Climate Change. nytimes.com. Retrieved June 11, 2018, from,  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/science/taking-on-climate-change.html