Nudge

Latest Episodes:

Dissecting Zohran Mamdani’s winning marketing tactics Aug 20, 2025

Show notes

I joined The Hustle Daily Show to chat about NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's and how his campaign cracked the code of modern political psychology by embracing vulnerability, leading with policy over aesthetics, and masterfully triggering psychological reactance against establishment dismissal. I chatted with The Hustle Daily Show's Jon Weigell about attention economy, authenticity and psychological factors that made the Mamdani campaign win out. Plus: Superman soars at the box office and Snoop Dogg cashes in on soccer.
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Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

Did I Get It Wrong? | Revisiting Priming Aug 18, 2025

Show notes

A few weeks back I debunked five studies on priming.

But did I get it wrong?

Today’s guest on Nudge thinks I missed something.

Tune in to hear consumer behaviour expert Philip Graves explain his view on priming.

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Phil’s book: https://shorturl.at/kzAta

Phil’s consultancy: https://www.philipgraves.net/consultancy/

Subscribe to the (free) Nudge Newsletter: https://nudge.ck.page/profile

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew-22213187/

Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

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Today’s sources:

Li, W., Moallem, I., Paller, K.A. & Gottfried, J.A. (2007) Subliminal smells can guide social preferences, Psychological Science, 18(12): 1044-9.

Plassmann, H., O' Doherty, J., Shiv, B., & Rangel, A. (2008) Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(3).

Spence, C., & Wang, Q. (2017). Assessing the impact of closure type on wine ratings and mood. Beverages, 3(4), 52.

University of Georgia. (2008). Simple recipe for ad success: Just add art. ScienceDaily.

Wansink, B., & van Ittersum, K. (2007, August 6). Bad wine can ruin a good meal [Press release]. Cornell University.

Yoon, S.-O. & Simonson, I. (2008) Choice set configuration as a determinant of preference attribution and strength, Journal of Consumer Research, 35(2): 324.

‘New Coke’ and the marketing blunder of the century Aug 11, 2025

Show notes

In 1985, Coca-Cola changed its flavour.

You probably know that this was a complete failure.

‘New Coke’ was discontinued after just 79 days.

But you probably don’t know the true reason why New Coke failed.

Many claim it was due to poor market research, but today’s guest on Nudge, leading consumer behaviour expert Philip Graves, disagrees.

Philip says New Coke failed not because the research was poor, but because market research is inherently flawed.

Want to understand the biggest marketing blunder of the century? Listen to today’s Nudge.

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Phil’s book: https://shorturl.at/kzAta

Phil’s consultancy: https://www.philipgraves.net/consultancy/

Subscribe to the (free) Nudge Newsletter: https://nudge.ck.page/profile

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew-22213187/

Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

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Today’s sources:

Dutton, D. G., & Aron, A. P. (1974). Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30(4), 510–517.

Graves, P. (2010). Consumer.ology: The market research myth, the truth about consumers and the psychology of shopping. Nicholas Brealey.

Hasel, L.E. & Kassin, S.M. (2009). On the presumption of evidentiary independence: Can confessions corrupt eyewitness identifications? Psychological Science, 20(1), 122.

McClure, S. M., Li, J., Tomlin, D., Cypert, K. S., Montague, L. M., & Montague, P. R. (2004). Neural correlates of behavioral preference for culturally familiar drinks. Neuron, 44(2), 379–387.

Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84(3), 231–259.

How your brain can reveal what you buy Aug 04, 2025

Show notes

Paul Zak can predict what customers buy without speaking to them.

He’s even able to boost charitable donations by spraying a donor with hormones.

Find out how in today’s episode of Nudge.

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Read Paul’s book Immersion: https://shorturl.at/YcYxu

Subscribe to the (free) Nudge Newsletter: https://nudge.ck.page/profile

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew-22213187/

Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

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Today’s sources:

Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84(3), 231–259.

Rogers, R. W., & Mewborn, C. R. (1976). Fear appeals and attitude change: Effects of a threat’s noxiousness, probability of occurrence, and the efficacy of coping responses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(1), 54–61.

Zak, P. J. (2022). Immersion: The science of the extraordinary and the source of happiness. Lioncrest Publishing.

How this indie movie used psychology to beat Hollywood Jul 28, 2025

Show notes

97% of independent films fail. Boiling Point did not. Today, I chat with executive producer Paul Mellor to learn how this movie applied psychological principles to outperform its peers and compete against blockbusters like James Bond.

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Join the Nudge Vaults waiting list: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/vaults

Paul’s 13.5 ways to grow an underdog: https://www.mellorandsmith.com/13-ways-to-grow-your-underdog-brand

Paul’s agency: https://www.mellorandsmith.com/

Subscribe to the (free) Nudge Newsletter: https://nudge.ck.page/profile

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew-22213187/

Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

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Binet, L., & Carter, S. (2018). How Not to Plan: 66 ways to screw it up. APG/Matador.

Cialdini, R. B. (2016). Pre‑suasion: A revolutionary way to influence and persuade. Simon & Schuster.

Ryan, J. D., & Cohen, N. J. (2004). The nature of change detection and online representations of scenes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 30(5), 988–1015.

Trott, D. (2019). Creative Blindness (and How to Cure It): Real‑life stories of remarkable creative vision. Harriman House.

van den Broek, E., & den Heijer, T. (2024). The Housefly Effect: How nudge psychology steers your everyday behaviour. Bedford Square Publishers.

Why naming a dish “field-grown” doubled sales Jul 21, 2025

Show notes

How would you encourage sustainable behaviour?

You might assume logical messages work best.

Stuff like “the average three-hour flight creates ~250–400 kg of CO₂”.

But today’s guest on Nudge has tested logical messages.

And they don’t work.

Today on Nudge, Toby Park from the Behavioural Insights Team explains how renaming a meat-free dish doubled its sales. Why targeting home-movers made Americans 400% more likely to cycle. How social norms can increase sales by 20%. And the reframing led the majority of Brits to choose energy-efficient fridges.

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Watch the bonus episode: https://nudge.kit.com/27720ca0ad

Connect with Toby on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toby-park-67773279/

Read Toby’s Net Zero Report: https://shorturl.at/Wy8RP

How to Build a Net Zero Society: https://shorturl.at/0PcRk

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew-22213187/

Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

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Sources:

Das, G., Spence, M. T., & Agarwal, J. (2021). Social selling cues: The dynamics of posting numbers viewed and bought on customers' purchase intentions. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 38(4), 994–1016.

Kirkman, E. (2019). Free riding or discounted riding? How the framing of a bike share offer impacts redemption. Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, 2(2), 1–10.

Park, T., Whincup, E., Parker, F., & Bhura, A. (2024). Net Zero communications, marketing and public engagement: Why we need it, and what we can learn from past case studies [Report]. Behavioural Insights Team.

Shotton, R. (2018). The Choice Factory: 25 behavioural biases that influence what we buy. Harriman House.

Sparkman, G., & Walton, G. M. (2017). Dynamic norms promote sustainable behavior, even if it is counternormative. Psychological Science, 28(11), 1663–1674.

Turnwald, B. P., Boles, D. Z., & Crum, A. J. (2017). Association Between Indulgent Descriptions and Vegetable Consumption: Twisted Carrots and Dynamite Beets. JAMA Internal Medicine, 177(8), 1216–1218.

Vennard, D., Park, T., & Attwood, S. (2019). Encouraging Sustainable Food Consumption By Using More-Appetizing Language.

Three tricks Super Mario uses to keep gamers hooked Jul 14, 2025

Show notes

Super Mario Bros is 40 years old. It’s an incredibly simple game (it takes up the same memory as a smartphone wallpaper), yet it’s incredibly popular. Over 40 million people have played it. Why? Because it’s packed with psychological tips that hook players in and keep them playing. Today, Ramli John explains the subtle behavioural science tricks Super Mario games use to keep us playing.

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Ramli’s book EUREKA: https://www.delightpath.com/book/eureka

Ramli’s website: https://www.delightpath.com/

Subscribe to the (free) Nudge Newsletter: https://nudge.ck.page/profile

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew/

Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

Visit the new website: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/

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Sources:

Alter, A. L. (2023). Anatomy of a breakthrough: How to get unstuck when it matters most. Simon & Schuster.

Allen, E. J., Dechow, P. M., Pope, D. G., & Wu, G. (2017). Reference-dependent preferences: Evidence from marathon runners. Management Science, 63(6), 1657–1672.

Fishbach, A. (2022). Get It Done: Surprising lessons from the science of motivation. Little, Brown Spark.

Graves, P. (2010). Consumer.ology: The truth about consumers and the psychology of shopping. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

Kivetz, R., Urminsky, O., & Zheng, Y. (2006). The goal‑gradient hypothesis resurrected: Purchase acceleration, illusionary goal progress, and customer retention. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(1), 39–58.

This single text made girls 45% more likely to get vaccinated Jul 07, 2025

Show notes

Can one text message save 100s of girls from cervical cancer? Today on Nudge, Niall Daly and Dr Giulia Tagliaferri discuss their county-wide study involving 55,000 girls. Their experiment had some eye-opening results, so I decided to copy it. I ran my own study on my listeners to see if I could increase my sales. Did it work? Listen to find out.

My study emails: https://ibb.co/HTdMDHxT

My study results: https://ibb.co/PGRp2d1y

Niall and Guilia’s paper: https://shorturl.at/3nlyH

Behavioural Insights Team: https://www.bi.team/

Subscribe to the (free) Nudge Newsletter: https://nudge.ck.page/profile

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew-22213187/

Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

The Science of Marketing Course (use code RESERVED4ME to get 50% off): https://science-of-marketing.teachable.com/

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Sources:

Daly, N., Merriam, S., & Tagliaferri, G. (2023). Effectiveness of SMS reminders to increase demand for HPV immunisation: A randomised controlled trial in Georgia (Working Paper No. 004). Insights Publico.

Milkman, K. L., Patel, M. S., Gandhi, L., Graci, H. N., Gromet, D. M., Ho, H., Kay, J. S., Lee, T. W., Akinola, M., Beshears, J., Bogard, J. E., Buttenheim, A. M., Chabris, C. F., Chapman, G. B., Duckworth, A. L., Goldstein, N. J., Goren, A., Halpern, S. D., John, L. K., ... & Van den Bulte, C. (2021). A megastudy of text-based nudges encouraging patients to get vaccinated at an upcoming doctor’s appointment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(20), e2101165118.

Patall, E. A., Cooper, H., & Wynn, S. R. (2010). The effectiveness and relative importance of choice in the classroom. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(4), 896–915.

Streicher, M. C., & Estes, Z. (2016). Multisensory interaction in product choice: Grasping a product affects choice of other seen products. Journal of Consumer Psychology. Advance online publication.

A surprisingly effective way to persuade (almost) anyone Jun 30, 2025

Show notes

It’s a psychological principle that helped end South African apartheid.

It reversed the Pope’s declining popularity.

It reduced university students’ binge drinking by 30%.

And can predict romantic breakups with 60% accuracy.

Today, bestselling author Will Storr reveals the surprisingly effective way to persuade (almost) anyone.

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Access the bonus episode: https://nudge.kit.com/0d88279296

Read Will’s book: https://shorturl.at/yUGRC

Visit Will’s website: https://www.thescienceofstorytelling.com/

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew-22213187/

Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

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Sources:

Aune, R. K., & Basil, M. D. (1994). A relational obligations approach to the foot-in-the-mouth effect. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 24(6), 546–556.

Berger, J. (2013). Contagious: Why things catch on. Simon & Schuster.

Bruch, E. E., & Newman, M. E. J. (2019). Aspirational pursuit of mates in online dating markets. Science Advances, 5(8).

Haslam, S. A., Reicher, S. D., & Platow, M. J. (2020). The new psychology of leadership: Identity, influence, and power (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Sharot, T. (2017). The influential mind: What the brain reveals about our power to change others. Little, Brown.

Suedfeld, P., Bochner, S., & Matas, C. (1971). Petitioner’s attire and petition signing by peace demonstrators: A field experiment on reference group similarity. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1(3), 278–283.

Tanner, R. J., Ferraro, R., Chartrand, T. L., Bettman, J. R., & Van Baaren, R. (2008). Of chameleons and consumption: The impact of mimicry on choice and preferences. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(6), 754–766. https://doi.org/10.1086/522322

I debunked psychology’s greatest myth Jun 23, 2025

Show notes

I interviewed 60 Brits to debunk one of psychology’s greatest myths. Priming is one of the best-known biases in behavioural science. Kahneman mentions it 35 times in his best-selling book Thinking Fast and Slow. And yet, I’m not convinced it really works. In five separate experiments, I tested it. Does priming work, or is it a myth?

The studies:

Authenticity study: https://ibb.co/5W14DM2N

Creativity study: https://ibb.co/FbxxNMDf

Guilty study: https://ibb.co/XrTLXrY4

Anchoring + priming study: https://ibb.co/99LLw7G9

Reading time study: https://ibb.co/LDYc18yF

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Subscribe to the (free) Nudge Newsletter: https://nudge.ck.page/profile

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew-22213187/

Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

Learn more about Voxpopme: https://www.voxpopme.com/

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Sources:

Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2), 230–244.

Chernev, A. (2011). Semantic anchoring in sequential evaluations of vices and virtues. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(5), 761–774.

Doyen, S., Klein, O., Pichon, C. L., & Cleeremans, A. (2012). Behavioral priming: It's all in the mind, but whose mind? PLoS ONE, 7(1), e29081.

Fitzsimons, G. J., Chartrand, T. L., & Fitzsimons, G. M. (2008). Automatic effects of brand exposure on motivated behavior: How Apple makes you “think different”. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(1), 21–35.

Goldsmith, K., Cho, E., & Dhar, R. (2012). Priming creativity: The effects of subliminal priming on creative problem solving. In Z. Gürhan-Canli, C. Otnes, & R. Zhu (Eds.), Advances in Consumer Research (Vol. 40, pp. 472–473). Association for Consumer Research.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Kahneman, D. (2012, September 26). A letter to the priming research community [Open email].

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