Richard Shotton on Choice

The Human Risk Podcast

What drives the choices we make, and how can we influence the choices that others make?
On this episode, I’m speaking to an expert in human decision-making. Richard Shotton is a behavioural science practitioner who has written two best-selling books, ‘ The Choice Factory’ and ‘The Illusion of Choice’.
Having begun his career in marketing, Richard now helps companies apply behavioural science to solve problems, particularly, as the titles of his books imply, when it comes to influencing the choices people make.
During our discussion, we talk about:

• Richard’s career that led him to found Astroten, his own behavioural science practice;
• the wonderful story of how the company got its name
• how the appliance of behavioural science can help solve business
• Examples of Richard’s approach to doing research and how those can be applied in any context;
• how companies can efficiently run experiments to see what works and what doesn’t
• some of the critical behavioural dynamics relevant to Richard’s work, which he explores in his books.

And much, much more.
What I love about listening to Richard is that he’s not just sharing his deep technical knowledge in ways that are easy to digest; he’s also very good at coming up with practical ideas for how to deploy Behavioural Science to meet objectives. And he’s great fun to talk to.
Links
Richard and his company Astroten- https://www.astroten.co.uk/
Find him on Twitter/X - https://x.com/rshotton?
and on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-shotton/
Richard’s first book ‘The Choice Factory’ - https://www.astroten.co.uk/the-choice-factory
His latest book ‘The Illusion of Choice’ - https://www.harriman-house.com/illusionofchoice
The ‘Astroten’ Hofling Hospital Experiment - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofling_hospital_experiment
The ‘Stolen Thunder Effect’ - https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/effects-stealing-thunder-criminal-and-civil-trials
An example of Zanussi’s Appliance Of Science ad campaign - https://youtu.be/DWbnxCe9xFc?si=wnaabpZrzMUA8kNc
The Keat’s heuristic - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme-as-reason_effect
The McGlone & Tofighbaksh Experiment - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304422X99000030
Monadic Testing - https://conjointly.com/blog/what-is-monadic-testing/
Professor Robert Cialdini’s research on the Petrified Wood Forest in Arizona - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15534510500181459