I read an interesting article recently that talked about how airlines manage people's impressions. Pilots and Flight Attendants wear uniforms that resemble military or police uniforms. Why? Imagine getting onto an airplane and the pilot is wearing shorts and a cut off tank top. Would you feel confident in his/her ability to fly the plane? Many people would not. The military like uniform commands a certain level of trust and therefor boosts our confidence in the pilot and his/her abilities.
This is a tactic that is used in many different arenas. Ever noticed all of the fresh flowers that are located right as you walk into a grocery store? These stores don't sell a lot of these products so why give them such prime real estate in the store? Studies have shown that having fresh flowers in the entrance of the grocery store gives you the subconscious impression that the items in the store are good and fresh, because the flowers are fresh.
In our class we read a book called Nudge that talked about this subject and how people put things in front of us to prompt certain behavior out of us. Most of the time this is used for good, but it is somewhat manipulative. The shelves in a grocery store that are at eye level are the most expensive to have your product featured on because the mere fact that they are at eye level encourages people to favor them.
This book talked about a scenario where a superintendent for a school district conducted an experiment in her schools during lunch times. She had the staff arrange the food in different ways to see if she could influence the options that the students made. She found that whatever was at eye level and the easiest to grab is what students tended to take the most of, whether it was french fries, carrot sticks, or dessert. If she made it harder to obtain the dessert fewer students chose it.
These "nudges" are all around us every day impacting the choices that we make. Whether it is a preselected option on a form or the placement of products on a display or in a store. We are constantly being nudged towards the desired scenarios of those who design those nudges, whether on purpose or by accident.
Wow! I have never noticed the fact that airline attire does resemble military. But it is true, I would associate shorts and a Hawaiian top with irresponsibility merely because every show on tv shows that person to be a relaxed and immature. Once you mentioned fresh flowers, I instantly thought of my local grocer who has them outside. It is true, I view that place as having the freshest groceries verses a place where you walk in and first thing you see are the cashiers. This article definitely impacted on how I view things and how much they are trying to manipulate just by placement and ease.
ReplyDeleteHappy to help enlighten you! It is interesting to start to pay attention to these things and to start to see how some are meant for good and others are just mean, like putting that delicious, but high calorie treat at eye level and up front.
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