A selection of articles and essays on consumer behaviour, research, and decision-making.
While no longer updated regularly, this archive reflects some of the themes and thinking behind Philip’s work.
The Psychology of Pricing
$9.99 It’s almost akin to a retail disease. Walk into any shop and the prices frequently end in the same way: $X.99 or $X.95. This used to have some unfortunate consequences. I’m old enough to remember the days when you might well end up ca…
How to Save Money
$9.99 It’s tempting to think that we don’t need anyone to tell us how to save money. Indeed, we may very well believe that we’re very good at saving money. A trip to most stores at the moment is a ‘money saving’ bonanza: with so many great …
The Psychology of Choice
Choice is nice, but also confusing. Research about choice is nice, but also sometimes confusing. The classic psychological experiment on choice is probably the one involving jams in a supermarket. A choice of six was found to lead to substa…
Influencing Investment
If there was to be one consistent theme that runs through all the studies about consumers that I find really interesting, it would be the way in which people allow something that shouldn’t make any difference to what their thinking change t…
Instant Emotion
Meet Willow, she’s going to be helping me with various psychological projects over the coming months. You may recall a previous article where I reviewed a study that looked at how the hormone released when we see an image like that of a pup…
The Influence of Word Choice
Sometimes it’s hard to find the right way of phrasing something, but for the most part our flow feels natural. We learn the rules of grammar from an early age. And we learn them implicitly for the most part. Certainly, when I was at school,…
Relax: I Promise It Will Be Worth It
I know that we live in a crazy, fast-paced world. And that you’re currently sitting at a computer where at any moment you might be alerted to the arrival of what could be an important email (but is probably someone selling pills or informin…
Dogs, Rats and Consumer Thinking
The decision has been taken: there is to be an addition to the household. A puppy, that the family has named Willow, will be arriving in a few weeks. As the resident psychologist I have taken on responsibility for training Willow: from what…
The Influence of Music in Advertising
Many young children, particularly boys, are obsessed with superlatives. What’s the biggest building, or the longest road; the fastest car, or the most valuable guitar (these are all questions that have been asked in my house). Fortuna…