Why Incentives Beat Intentions
Why Incentives Beat Intentions
The useful part
Change what you reward before you change what you say.
Sources behind this episode
- peer-reviewed foundational paperOn the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B
- synthesizing cross-sector bookThe Tyranny of Metrics
- official federal regulatory consent order and press releaseCFPB Fines Wells Fargo $100 Million for Widespread Illegal Practice of Secretly Opening Unauthorized Accounts
- business school case studyThe Wells Fargo Cross-Selling Scandal
- peer-reviewed foundational evaluation science paperAssessing the Impact of Planned Social Change
More in Business
1:07 Business
Protection Is a Second Purchase
An extended warranty offered at checkout is not an extension of the item you just chose; it is a separate product whose value depends on the price of the plan, what the terms actually cover, how likely the item is to fa…
1:05 Business
The Fee Appears After You've Decided
Drip pricing works through timing: when fees are added late in a checkout flow, the time, effort, and comparison already spent on choosing make the decision feel made before the full price is ever seen, so a total that…
1:08 Business
Why Four Small Payments Feel Cheaper Than One
Partitioned pricing breaks one total into several smaller amounts, and because the pain of paying is felt per payment rather than per purchase, each small number registers as less painful, so the whole purchase feels li…