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An Interesting Conversation with a Behavioral Scientist (Decoded!)

I was listening to the FM radio while driving some months ago and the host of the show was having an interesting conversation with a behavioral scientist who operates http://www.brief-case.co/.

Some parts of the conversation as recollected by me (probably well known!)
  • Food
    • Small radii plate makes you eat less (understand the human tendency is to fill a plate - especially buffet!)
    • Greater contrast between the plate and food makes you -see- food and hence eat less (dark blue plate is the best!)
    • Red color increase appetite (McDonalds, KFC example)
  • Travel
    • He just gave up on Mumbai local train travel
    •  More dust bin, better lighted could lead to Swaach Bharat! (experiments in Finland - footsteps marks leading to brightly lit dust bins increased its usage by 43%)
    • Traffic signals a poorly designed (you see more than 1 signal and hence people do not think about stopping before the zebra line)
  • Education is not to do with human behavior
  • Retail
    • Prime space in retail store is 30 deg below the eye level
    • Suggest to fill your stomach and then head to super market (leads to buying less junk!)
  • Work
    • Round table increases (everyone facing the other) collaboration and everyone works for common goals (no personal agenda)
  • Social Media
    • More likely you will "like" something that has  "many likes"
    • Human tends to go where there are more people (we see this all the time - the classic case is in airports departures!)
    • More recently during our visit to Shiveneri Fort! (There was this pond that was not attractive - no one was paying attention, when one person went to show his son the tadpoles, slowly but surely the crowd built up!)
  • apparently brushing teeth every day was not a habit - someone made sure it was made a habit (sale of brush and paste!)
  • http://www.behaviouraldesign.com/2016/09/06/know-the-basics-of-creating-habits/ has more details
  • http://www.behaviouraldesign.com/2016/08/31/how-reframing-choices-changes-our-decision/ (this is eye opener!)

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