Research-informed essays on cognitive biases, pricing psychology, and ethical choice architecture.
- AI & Behavioral Science 10 AI Marketing Tools, Evaluated Through a Behavioral Science Lens Most reviews evaluate features and pricing. This one evaluates the cognitive mechanisms these tools exploit, automate, and occasionally neutralize. April 19, 2026
- Pricing Psychology Anchoring and the Pricing Page: What the Research Actually Shows The anchoring effect is the most cited bias in pricing strategy. It is also among the most misapplied. March 19, 2026
- Decision Science The Decoy Effect in SaaS Plan Selection How adding a third, dominated option shifts preference — and the conditions under which it fails. February 7, 2026
- Consumer Behavior When Social Proof Backfires Showing "1,000 people bought this" can actually decrease conversion. Here's when and why. January 22, 2026
- Decision Science Choice Overload: The Evidence and Its Limits The jam study launched a movement. The replications painted a more complicated picture. December 10, 2025
- Pricing Psychology Loss Aversion and the Free Trial Why free trials convert — and what the endowment effect tells us about the ethics of it. November 13, 2025
- Ethics Defaults, Dark Patterns, and the Ethics of Choice Architecture When does a nudge become a shove? The line is thinner than most practitioners think. October 17, 2025
- Consumer Behavior Scarcity: Real, Manufactured, and the Space Between Urgency tactics work. They also erode trust. The research suggests both are true simultaneously. September 11, 2025
- Decision Science The Peak-End Rule in Customer Experience People remember experiences by their peak intensity and their ending. Most SaaS companies optimize for neither. August 14, 2025
- AI & Behavioral Science The Cognitive Biases AI Marketing Tools Exploit (Including Their Own Users) The tools designed to optimize your marketing are themselves marketed using every bias in the book. July 21, 2025
- AI & Behavioral Science The Personalization Paradox: When AI Gets Too Good at Predicting You Reactance theory suggests there is a ceiling to personalization. Most AI tools have not found it yet. June 9, 2025
- AI & Research Methods AI-Powered A/B Testing and the Illusion of Statistical Significance AI testing tools declare winners faster. That is not the same as declaring them correctly. May 27, 2025
- AI & Pricing Psychology Can AI Optimize Pricing? A Behavioral Science Perspective AI can optimize for revenue. It cannot optimize for perceived fairness. That distinction matters. April 4, 2025
- AI & Consumer Behavior AI Content Tools and the Science of Persuasion Jasper and Copy.ai through the lens of the Elaboration Likelihood Model. March 4, 2025
- Research Methods What the Replication Crisis Means for Marketing Psychology Power poses, ego depletion, and priming. What marketers believed that turned out to be wrong. February 5, 2025
- Decision Science Framing Effects: Gain vs. Loss in Conversion Copy "Save $200" vs. "Don't lose $200." Prospect theory applied to landing pages. January 17, 2025