Dectech

🎃 #Halloween is here - from haunted houses to spooky stories, this time of year taps into our natural instincts to be scared. In our new #DectechResearch we surveyed over 2,100 people in the UK to uncover what they're really afraid of. 💭 We asked people whether they were afraid of various common #Phobias, from reptiles and insects, to heights and flying. It turns out, 41.5% of our sample are afraid of sharks, with public speaking (41.3%) and deep lakes (39.6%) also making it into the top 3 fears. 👻 Meanwhile, more everyday fears like blood (15.4%) and small spaces (18.9%) surprisingly scored lower. Equally, although Halloween is all about the supernatural, ghosts also rank low, with only 17% of our sample afraid of them. What are you afraid of? Do your fears align with our results? #DectechBite

Do glowing online reviews actually make it harder for #Consumers to decide what to buy? Research into consumer #DecisionMaking suggests that when multiple products have near-perfect reviews or ratings, making choices becomes harder and more overwhelming. Consumers become confused, and it can be difficult for them to discern which products are truly good. What can be done by #Businesses to counteract this positivity problem? This article explores how providing more nuanced feedback options and encouraging balanced reviews, rather than aiming for perfect scores, can actually benefit both businesses and consumers. ➡️ Read the full article for more insight into smarter shopping decisions:

Which effects of #ClimateChange are you most concerned about? How do your anxieties around climate issues compare with those of others? Our #Research on 1,281 individuals shows that for nearly half of respondents, ocean pollution tops the list of climate change-related anxieties. The below figure shows what % of people are distressed about various climate issues, with deforestation and loss of biodiversity also scoring highly. These findings highlight an important opportunity for policymakers to engage the public and motivate #Consumers to act more sustainably by addressing their greatest #ClimateConcerns. Read the full #DectechBuzz here: https://buff.ly/3pszaUB

In a digital age where #Data is collected everywhere, there is growing concern about who has access to our personal information and how it is used. In this week's #DectechPoll, we want to know whether or not you would pay £20 to access Government information about yourself. Let us know using the below reacts!

We are delighted to be finalists for the upcoming Market Research Society (MRS) Awards 2024 in Sustainability Research. Our nomination with Southern Water recognises our work on encouraging water conservation and tackling water scarcity. Due to #ClimateChange and population growth, addressing future water shortages requires behavioural change from #Consumers as well as technological advances. We ran rigorous behavioural experiments in our #Behaviourlab platform to better understand the types of communication that encourage sustainable practices the most. We were able to identify how best to frame communications with consumers, and which messengers had the greatest impact on water-saving behaviour. This #Research helped Southern Water lay the foundations for a more #Sustainable future. #DectechNews

💰 Have you ever felt hesitant to donate to charity due to uncertainty around where your money is really going? If so, you may have been experiencing a #BehaviouralBias known as overhead aversion. 🧠 Overhead aversion can occur when donors believe that too much of their money is going to the charities' overhead expenses rather than the cause itself. #Research shows that overhead aversion in charitable donations reduces overall contributions. 💡 What can be done? This insightful article by the Behavioural Scientist explores how charities could work with big donors to cover overhead costs, while being able to offer overhead-free donations to smaller donors. Taking this kind of approach informed by #BehaviouralScience can increase donations considerably. ➡️ Read the full article here:

We recently shared that Dectech are finalists for three Market Research Society (MRS) Awards 2024. One of these is for Financial Services Research, recognising our work alongside Lloyds Banking Group on improving financial communications in line with new FCA Consumer Duty regulations. These regulations require that financial communications are understood by all #Customers, for their personal benefit. We developed a scalable test utilising AI language models and backed by #BehaviouralScience to evaluate customer understanding of hundreds of different communications. This #Research has brought about better understanding for thousands of customers, and sets a new benchmark for comprehensible #Communications in the financial sector. #DectechNews

📣 Check out this new #Interview with two of our Directors, Henry Stott and Rich Lewis! As part of her Interviewing Prominent People In The Field Series Merle van den Akker, PhD asks them about their journeys into #BehaviouralScience and experience founding Dectech, as well as their views on how the field is developing and where it will go. You can read the full interview here: https://buff.ly/3Y5zTLh #DectechNews

📱 Could food #DeliveryApps be used to #Nudge consumers into making more sustainable food choices? New #Research suggests that changing the order of the menu so that the lowest carbon-impact restaurants and dishes are presented first can reduce the carbon footprint of food choices made on food-delivery apps. 📉 In the study with about 4000 participants, this choice-architecture intervention reduced the average meal carbon footprint by 12% (0.3 kg/CO2e per order). ♻️ Such menu repositioning would be a low-cost intervention to reduce carbon emissions. However, further research is needed, for example, into potential long-term adjustments in behaviour among consumers. Find out more here:

Traditional Economics suggests that more options can only be better for consumers to maximize utility and happiness - but what about #ChoiceOverload? In some recent #Research for a client we definitely found that more was not better. Our insights played a key role in how the business went on to #Market their products and services. We analysed how increasing add-on options for 2,500 #Consumers purchasing holiday packages impacted overall sales. Results showed that while offering one additional upgrade increased sales, adding more than one drove sales down. These findings complement a wider literature on how the availability of choice affects #DecisionMaking. E.g. Research by Iyengar & Lepper (2000) also suggests that an abundance of choice can reduce motivation to choose and decrease satisfaction with choice outcomes. Insights such as these help us to understand #ConsumerBehaviour and demonstrate how making choices simpler can increase revenue for brands. #DectechBite #ConsumerChoice