http://mindhacks.com/2005/01/04/the-high-street-persuaders/ Neuroscience and psychology news and views. Fri, 24 May 2013 00:56:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://mindhacks.com/2005/01/04/the-high-street-persuaders/#comment-8608 Wed, 05 Jan 2005 09:35:53 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2005/01/04/the-high-street-persuaders/#comment-8608 Ah…But how to keep your wits about you! This is, i think, where the psychology of marketing and possibilities for individual freedom intersect – no trick used by marketers is coercive, neither are they usually very smart. I know that aftershave adverisers, say, are just trying to make me associate their product with an astonishing success with members of the opposite sex – and if i’m really thinking about this I can see it for as laughable a proposition as it really is.
But the point is: who has time to think, all the time, about every single consumption choice they make? Answer: no one. We don’t have the mental resources, or time, to ‘keep our eyes open’ to every trick the advertisers pull. Especially in situations, like supermarkerts, where we are in a hurry, often harrassed and with a limited set of priorities (eg “buy dinner”, “get home in time for 8″).
Individually, given time, we may all be fairly rational decision-makers, but aggregate us into a time-pressed, distracted, crowd and there’s easily enough collective irrationality to keep the advertisers well-funded.

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