Nudgestock went global this year. It was a jam-packed, 15-hours of virtual talks from the planet's brightest and boldest thinkers in behavioral science, including Dan Ariely, Laurie Santos, and Kai D. Wright, to name just a few. And it couldn’t have come at a more valuable time. With COVID-19 fueling a global sense of uncertainty, understanding the core principles behind human behavior is going to be crucial for brands and businesses to emerge from the crisis fighting fit. But if you didn’t manage to catch it all, or if you’re wondering how to apply these insights to your work, we’ve got you covered. At Canvas8, the leading authority on consumer behavior, we’ve distilled some of the day’s highlights, uncovered the actionable learnings for brands and businesses, and gathered even more insights to help bring behavioral science to life. Receive more helpful insights to fuel your business strategy by signing up to Keeping Tabs, a bi-weekly newsletter on human behavior: https://www.canvas8.com/blog.html

1. How to use behavioral
science in your work
/ What we learned from Nudgestock 2020
at

2. Nudgestock went global this year. It was a jam-packed,
15-hours of virtual talks from the planet's brightest and
boldest thinkers in behavioral science, including Dan
Ariely, Laurie Santos, and Kai D. Wright, to name just a
few. And it couldn’t have come at a more valuable time.
With COVID-19 fueling a global sense of uncertainty,
understanding the core principles behind human
behavior is going to be crucial for brands and businesses
to emerge from the crisis fighting fit.
But if you didn’t manage to catch it all, or if you’re
wondering how to apply these insights to your work,
we’ve got you covered. At Canvas8, the leading authority
on consumer behavior, we’ve distilled some of the day’s
highlights, uncovered the actionable learnings for brands
and businesses, and gathered even more insights to help
bring behavioral science to life.
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION

3. TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION
/ Overcoming Laziness
Brands should reduce effort and boost reward
/ Helpful Humor
Brands should think more like comedians
/ Restricting Reach
Brands should be aware of ‘sludge’
/ Panic vs. Risk Pay-off
Brands should ease people into change
7 ways for brands to apply
behavioral science
/ Igniting Change
Brands should help validate people’s beliefs
/ Happiness Nudges
Brands should build a path to happiness
/ Simplifying Action
Brands should do more than just ‘resonate’

4. Using her eponymous Williams Behaviour Change Model, Bri
Williams highlighted three key barriers that brands need to help
people overcome to nudge them into adopting new behaviors:
laziness, paralysis, and fear. In order to overcome laziness, Williams
cited the effort vs. reward equation. For many people, if the effort is
greater than the reward, it’s much harder to convince them to
change their behavior. So, we have to make it easy to do the right
thing and hard to do the wrong thing.
By way of example, Williams referenced the paper ‘Why are you
swiping right? The impact of product orientation on swiping
responses’. This study revealed that the orientation of a product
makes people more likely to swipe in the direction the product was
pointing, regardless of whether the outcome was to buy or cancel.
It’s known as processing fluency. Canvas8 spoke to Dr. Mario
Pandelaere, a co-author of the study, to understand how brands
can reduce effort and maximize reward in these scenarios.
Overcoming Laziness
/ Brands should reduce effort and boost reward
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION
Bri Williams
/ Talk: Lazy, scared, and
overwhelmed
Williams is an expert in behavioral
influence – how to apply behavioral
economics to decision-making so you
delete hesitation and maximize every
interaction.
EXPERT BIO

5. Overcoming Laziness
/ Brands should reduce effort and boost reward
Lush’s ‘30-Second Soap’, which is designed to
dissolve after 30 seconds of usage, makes it
easier to understand just how long it takes to
wash your hands thoroughly.
BRANDS IN ACTION
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION

6. McGraw invites us to consider what businesses can learn from
comedians. The first lesson is about thinking in reverse. In comedy,
this is where comedians build their jokes around the punchline. This
style of thinking can work to overcome the status quo bias and has
been successful in developing innovative products, namely the Light
Phone 2.
The second learning revolves around turning ‘bugs’ into features,
which leans on the idea that self-deprecating humor can work to
boost likability. It’s a strategy that cough syrup brand Buckley’s
tapped into as part of a campaign titled ‘It tastes awful. And it works’,
which features the slogan “Our largest bottle is 200 ml. anything
more would be cruel.”
For brands, humor can be a powerful tool when harnessed correctly.
Canvas8 spoke to Caleb Warren, a marketing professor at the
University of Arizona and author of the study ‘Humor, Comedy, and
Consumer Behavior’, to learn about the difficulties of using humor in
ads and how this impacts brand loyalty.
Helpful Humor
/ Brands should think more like comedians
Peter McGraw
/ Talk: Shtick to Innovation: Serious
lessons in creativity and execution
from comedy’s rebels
Peter McGraw is a professor of marketing
and psychology at the University of
Colorado Boulder and a global expert in
the scientific study of humor.
EXPERT BIO
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION

7. Vegan brand Emily Snacks launched its first-ever
OOH campaign right in the middle of lockdown.
But rather than shying away from the bad timing,
the self-aware ad strikes a funny, self-deprecating
tone that reflects people’s desire to laugh at the
harsh realities of life.
BRANDS IN ACTION
Helpful Humor
/ Brands should think more like comedians
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION

8. “Think about ‘sludge’ as the evil cousin of nudge,” says Dilip Soman,
citing a popular metaphor to explain the difference between the
two terms. The way in which people make decisions can be
understood as a walk in a field with open gates – an easy hurdle
that’s akin to a nudge – while closed gates represent ‘sludge’,
something that prevents someone doing what they want easily.
Sometimes, there is merit to slowing people down. Take Twitter’s
new alert that prompts users to read an article if they want to
retweet it, rather than circulating content they’ve taken at face
value. On the other hand, sludge can also be detrimental to
consumers. Soman notes three sources of sludge: clunky
processes, poor communication, and negative affect. The solution
to all these problems? More empathetic design with the
understanding that one person’s sludge may feel insignificant to
another due to the personal context surrounding decision-making.
Restricting Reach
/ Brands should be aware of ‘sludge’
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION
Dilip Soman
/ Talk: Sludge
Dilip Soman is a director of the
Behavioural Economics in Action
Research Centre at Rotman. His
research focuses on behavioral science
and its applications in consumer
wellbeing, marketing, and policy.
EXPERT BIO

9. Tech start-up Amicable has found success by
removing sludge. The divorce process is a painful
experience – both financially and emotionally –
but by allowing users to manage all the
paperwork through its app, it’s encouraging more
civilized separations.
BRANDS IN ACTION
Restricting Reach
/ Brands should be aware of ‘sludge’
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION

10. The pandemic has illustrated that the world isn’t equipped to solve
problems efficiently. To get through the crisis and return to
normality, Ariely explains that people need to learn from
experience – we’re not good at learning from descriptions. “Right
now, our panic is higher than the re-risk,” he explains. “What will
happen is that with things like going to the grocery store or going to
work, we’ll learn that they are not as dangerous.”
But for the experiences that people aren’t forced into – like going to
the cinema or clubbing – the gap between the fear of the unknown
and lived reality is going to be much higher. For brands, there’s an
opportunity to offer people the experience of being less stressed so
that they become accustomed to that change. The challenge here is
getting people to confront feelings of unease. With research finding
that people would much rather avoid information that could result
in negative emotions – even when it may be useful or important –
the road to normality looks set to be a bumpy one.
Panic vs. Risk Pay-off
/ Brands should ease people into change
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION
Dan Ariely
/ Talk: Some contemplations
about social science & COVID-19
Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke
Professor of Psychology and Behavioral
Economics at Duke University and the
founder of the Center for Advanced
Hindsight.
EXPERT BIO

11. With lockdown restrictions lifting in the UK,
Primark is reopening its doors. Mindful of the
need for a hygienic approach, the retailer is
easing concerns by setting up hand sanitizer
stations, signed walkway routes, perspex screens
at checkouts, and protective equipment for staff.
BRANDS IN ACTION
Panic vs. Risk Pay-off
/ Brands should ease people into change
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION

12. “What we have inside our heads is often very different to what
we’re prepared to say publicly and what we’re prepared to act on,”
explains Dr. Cass Sunstein. As illustrated by the #MeToo movement
and the unanticipated nature of Brexit, social change is catalyzed by
the public validation of privately held beliefs.
Sunstein explains four processes often involved in such shifts. The
first is ‘preference falsification’ – the idea that what people say is
not always what they really think. The second is that the degree of
considered thought to drive an action varies from person to person
– this is called ‘diverse thresholds’. The third outlines how an
individual or a group voicing their opinions about something – take
Black Lives Matter as an example – can inspire others to also speak
up. And the fourth taps into group polarization – the notion that a
group of people can make decisions together that feel more
extreme when compared to the individual inclination of each
member. Working together, these four factors can ignite change,
whether socially or for brands.
Igniting Change
/ Brands should help validate people’s beliefs
Cass Sunstein
/ Talk: How change happens
Cass Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley
University Professor at Harvard. He’s also
the director of the Program on Behavioral
Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law
School, and author of several of best-selling
behavioural science books.
EXPERT BIO
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION

13. As cynicism towards cause-based marketing
grows, recent events have seen employees speak
out in increasing numbers to criticize businesses
for not truly practicing what they preach – namely
their inconsistent efforts to tackle racism.
BRANDS IN ACTION
Igniting Change
/ Brands should help validate people’s beliefs
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION

14. Santos begins her talk with some poignant and worrying statistics
about the poor state of college students’ mental health. To change
this, she launched a course at Yale focusing on happiness through
the power of positive psychology.
True happiness is hard to achieve because our minds lie to us
about what makes us happy. Many people think more money will
make them happy, but studies show that’s not true. Instead, Santos
outlines four tactics to build a path to a happier life: make time for
social connections, practice gratitude for yourself and for others,
reduce mind-wandering and become more present, and become
wealthy in time, not money.
For brands, there’s an opportunity to empower people with a
greater sense of time affluence. Canvas8 spoke to Ashley Whillans,
an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School and author
of the study 'Buying time promotes happiness', to learn why
time-saving purchases make people happier than material goods.
Happiness Nudges
/ Brands should build a path to happiness
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION
Laurie Santos
/ Talk: The unexpected science of
wellbeing
Laurie Santos is a cognitive scientist and
professor of psychology at Yale
University. She is also the host of the
popular podcast The Happiness Lab.
EXPERT BIO

15. Happiness Nudges
/ Brands should build a path to happiness
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION
Meditation app Calm guides people through
mindfulness exercises to ease stress and
support overall wellbeing. By offering access
to psychological interventions in a convenient
format, it’s helping people take mental health
into their own hands.
BRANDS IN ACTION

16. The crux of Wright’s talk is about how many brands find behavioral
science too complex to apply. But, in order to emerge from the
pandemic, Wright explains that behaviorally-led thinking is key. The
pre-crisis tactic of merely ‘resonating’ with an audience base won’t
work long-term. So, he’s built LAVEC, a framework that unpacks
behavioral science, making it more applicable to the mainstream.
The model leans on systems-based thinking to outline three
interacting elements for brands to consider in communication.
The first are lexicon triggers – identifiable keywords that strike an
emotional connection with people. The second element is audio cues
that people can immediately associate a brand with. And the third is
visual stimuli – GIFs, emojis, and other content that bring a group
together. These elements interact and form different experiences for
consumers where, taken together, that becomes the brand’s culture.
Take Sweatfest as an example. With motivational slogans, iconic
dance routines and an interactive IG live-stream, Ryan Heffington has
built a devoted fanbase that merges all three elements successfully.
Simplifying Action
/ Brands should do more than just ‘resonate’
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION
Kai D. Wright
/ Talk: Scaling a social science
into a pop culture zeitgeist
Kai D. Wright is an author, strategy
adviser, global consulting partner at
Ogilvy, and lecturer at Columbia
University. He is on a mission to help
people build better brands.
EXPERT BIO

17. Simplifying Action
/ Brands should do more than just ‘resonate’
TRANSLATING NUDGESTOCK INTO ACTION
As people come to expect a more human
approach from brands, Netflix is using Twitter
as a key communication channel to share in
cultural moments through pithy memes,
in-jokes, and witty repartee.
BRANDS IN ACTION

18. / Want more?
Read our ‘Science Of’ series on
the Canvas8 Library, where you
can find more behavioral science
pieces.
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