Hello everybody and welcome to Psychology on the web and also to my, my name is Anuta Puru. I come from Romania. I live in Tisha. Very nice city where it's really sunny today. And uh today I'll be speaking about psychology on the web. One of my favorite subjects.Unfortunately, we don't have uh pretty much uh time. So uh I'm going to provide you mostly bite size information and let's jump in if you want to connect, you can see my linkedin in the right corner, a lower corner, so feel free to connect and I can share even more resources and stuff about this and the other topics just for the record.

I am a front end developer right now, but I'm really passionate about everything related to the web and especially this uh I call them softer parts of the web. So diving, right? Writing uh there is an Italian scientist called Ch Chinni who actually enunciated some principles of persuasion and I am going to explain a little bit about each of them for you. So the first one is a reciprocity. It's based on giving something in order to get something in return. Uh just as an example. I always remember when I was little, my mom always asked me if I wanted to share uh my sweets or what I was eating with her in order to make me feel less selfish or stuff like that. But I always got something in return. If I share the piece of chocolate, I got something sweet on another thing. Moving to the next example, there is social proof which is basically saying that there is nothing like feeling validated based on what others are doing. The best place where you can see. This principle in action is actually on social media because a lot of people are posting pictures of their lives, even posting pictures from exotic vacations or stuff like that when actually they aren't there.

Uh The need for social validation is pretty big and it's pretty much impossible to bypass because humans so uh social beings uh since the dawn of time, feel the need of belonging to a group and uh feeling like they are validated. Another principle is liking. Uh the fact that the more you like someone, the more you will be persuaded by him. Uh This also can be seen on social media. For example, for influencers, if you really like an influencer, you are more likely to be persuaded to buy something or to do something that that influencer is promoting. Another one is unity, which pretty much says that we are just like you, everybody wants to find a group where they belong. And uh this concept of unity is something we are all looking for in our lives. Moving on. There is commitment where people want their beliefs to be consistent with their values because nobody wants to be seen as a liar. Uh What I mean? Uh I'll give you another example, for example, if I am uh I don't know, let's say I am an honest person or an I, I actually am not just let's say, or an empathetic person.

Uh People want to, for example, I want not only to be con to consider myself an empathetic person, but also to show these beliefs to the other person to the other people by doing stuff which reflects this uh characteristic. Another one is authority which is pretty simple, like you will obey me. Even this might seem a little bit counterintuitive. It is a very strong principle of persuasion because us as people tend to look up to our leaders or to any kind of person who is showing some kind of authority. And we tend to obey those people without really thinking that much about what they are saying. Uh This can be good sometimes if those leaders are genuine and authentic. But uh this thing can also bring some trouble as there were many examples through the history. And the last one is Car City, which is pretty much that uh if you believe that something is in short supply, you want it more. Uh For example, if you, you go to a shop, I've actually seen this in action in one of the shops in my city. Uh when there are discounts, big discounts, especially in clothes.

Uh the, the people who work in the stores and especially the managers are insisting for uh the the vendors to just to remove uh some of the some of the clothes and leave a limited amount of qua uh limited quantity for each of the sizes. For example. So you will only find one S one M and this makes people see it. Oh, you are going there and you see, oh there is only one left in my size and you are more likely to buy it. This is also present on the internet where there are such statements as the last piece in stock or there are only two left or even stuff like other five other people are looking at this uh product right now. Moving forward. I think it would be uh good for you to find something about the neuromarketing. Basics. Neuromarketing is a very broad subject. But just to give you a little glimpse, I'll be talking about the three layers in our brain. That is actually the Neocortex, which is the new brain.

The new brain handles thinking and uh takes informed decisions to say. So like uh for example, if you want to buy a car, you aren't going to uh just go on the street and look, find the car and all right, this is the one I want. Uh because it's a bigger investment, you will probably be thinking about uh this more. And uh you aren't going to take this decision with the old brain where we will get just in a minute. The the middle layer is the limbic system or the middle brain. Uh It mainly focuses on emotions and feelings. So these are basic the impulsive decisions if you want to say so. And another uh the other layer is the old brain or the reptilian brain. It is called like this because we are sharing it with many other mammals and even reptiles. It's very, very old. Uh it comes from uh from the times when people weren't this advanced to apply. And actually this old brain is the one that takes decisions for you, even if you don't realize it. Sometimes another thing that I think uh should be uh should be said here is that there are certain triggering the old brain without us even realizing. And these are basically selfish or self centered because the reptilian brain is actually concerned mostly about our survival and our own person. Uh We aren't thinking about other people here when taking decisions with the old brain.

Another stimuli is the contrast because uh we are, we tend to notice the results or the difference more if we are presented with a before and after picture this also triggers us to take a decision quicker. There are also tangible triggers. So this means uh actually seeing some numbers or some results, the, the f the first and the last element in a collection or on a website are usually the ones we are going to remember. This is also a principle which I've been using without knowing about it in the past, especially when I was in school. I always wanted to be the first one to present or the first one to answer a question or to give in a test because usually people are going to remember the first presenter and the last one those in the middle get kind of fuzzy, especially if it's a tiring subject or if it's been a long day, the old brain is visual cues.

So the more visual a website is the more likely you are to decide on buying or contracting those services. And also based on emotions this you can see in action pretty much in every organization which is uh doing nonprofit because in order to raise money, uh they are relying on emotion moving forward, there are some cognitive biases. Biases are actually things that we are doing without even realizing and things that we have. For example, there is even a bias, a bias that says, oh I have no bias, this is also face fake. Uh you are going to notice in the examples. Maybe you will also find yourself in some of them, there is the false consensus bias where you think the world is like you uh which is pretty normal because nobody wants to be the only weirdo who is doing one thing or liking one thing. Another bias is the course of knowledge because you can't unknow what you already know. Uh This also is reflected on the internet in terms of, I don't know, taking more informed decisions. For example, I had a recent experience about which I'm going to tell you a little bit later where I had some trouble booking a holiday. Now that I know that dark thing is happening. I can't unknow it and I will be paying more attention to it.

Another one is recency, which means preferring new data over older one. I think this one is pretty obvious both in terms of, I don't know, scholar work or reading or the internet because we tend to look to more recent data or writings. And many people are nowadays even closing the website. If it looks like it's old fashion design, isn't that actual anymore? Many people are closing the website instantly because it looks old and it doesn't fit the style that is nowadays everywhere over the internet. The other one is the clustering illusion, which actually is our tendency for uh perceiving small samples to be significant strikes. For example, I'll give you just a simple one if we have uh let's say we have an apple tree in our garden and some of the apples are falling off the tree before being ripe, ignoring the fact that those apples are falling. The other ones are just fine and growing and you are waiting for them to ripe on. But sometimes we tend to focus on smaller samples instead of seeing the bigger picture. Another one is anchoring uh which is also related to the stimuli I was talking about earlier with the first and last. Anchoring is actually relying heavily on the first piece of information presented and not looking forward for more details.

This can also be seen in the media with fake news and uh with certain television uh televisions who are actually trying to manipulate somehow or push the viewers' attention to a certain direction in a, in a news. Another one is the egocentric bias, which is recalling past events in an exaggerated manner. And I think the best example here is talking about, I don't know, fishing stories or hunting stories. Most of my friends who are going fishing are always telling me, oh, I caught a huge fish and I'm like, oh, all right. Do you have pictures? And then they are showing me and I'm like, mm OK. That's not really huge but well done. Another one is the confirmation bias where people have the tendency to test things that confirm their beliefs because we want to be consistent with what we are saying and what we are thinking, we are we tend to actually pursue our opinion instead of looking for other alternatives.

And the last bias I am going to present to you today. There are many, many more, but I believe these are, are the most relevant are, is congruence, which is actually the tendency to test the hypothesis just through direct testing instead of testing other alternate solutions.

This is this is also tied to the confirmation bias moving forward as we don't have that much time. I'll be talking to you about dark patterns. Uh What are dark patterns just for you to know these are certain behaviors and certain elements used the inside website in order to make people more likely to buy or to subscribe to a certain uh website. These dark patterns are actually using uh certain I I call them shady techniques because they aren't providing genuine value or they are making you try to, they are trying to make you stay instead of uh giving you the choice and the decision. Uh sometimes some types of dark patterns are as follows. There are three questions when you, for example, when you are feeling a form, I actually did find one last week, I believe uh there were two check boxes at the end. One of them said I opt in for emailing list, I don't know what emailing list and the other one said I opt out. But if you checked both of them, as many people are used to doing like uh uh using those check boxes for, I don't know terms and conditions and stuff like that, just checking without reading everything.

You are going to be in trouble pretty much because even if you don't want to subscribe to that mailing list and you clicked both of them, you are going to be there. This is just a simple example and a pretty harmless one if there is no data leakage or stuff like this going on in the background. But uh it does happen a lot on the web. Another one is misdirection where the design focuses your attention on one thing in order to distract your attention from another. And this example is seen lot in airline websites where they are actually choosing a, a seat which costs extra for you when you are entering the website and they are making you focus on their great graphics on your enthusiasm to going on a holiday and stuff like that. And most of the times you don't even notice the extra expense, which isn't that big. But still, I don't think it's all right for us to to lose money because of this. Another one is forced continuity. Uh This is special happening when with free trials, when it comes to an end, most of the websites are actually charging your card silently. They don't say anything, they don't announce you. There are some websites which are doing this just right.

For example, I had some trouble a few months ago, I subscribed for a big platform for online courses because I had uh three months for free. And just when I wanted to cancel that subscription, uh, when those three months were coming to an end, I uh went on the website about one week before the end date and I saw that my credit card was already charged as you can probably anticipate. I got pretty upset. I mailed the customer support. It wasn't that fun, but I don't think it's all right for those money to be taken from us be before being noticed and especially not one week earlier. Another one is the disguised ads which are actually disguised as other kinds of content or some navigation in order to get you to click on them. I'm sure you have also encountered this problem especially for websites which allows allow you to download things. For example, there is a very big software website where you can download some open source and free software which disguise is the download button as uh as a banner, which is uh actually an ad. Another one is the Roach Motel. This is the situation you are getting in very easily, but it's hard for you to get out. For example, there are premium subscriptions for which which cannot be canceled from your account.

You, you have to email or call customer support and go to a longer process in order to cancel them the the websites are doing this because they are actually counting on the fact that you aren't going to go through so much trouble to cancel like a very cheap subscription. Another one is uh the confirmed shaming, which is actually guilting the user into opting into something. I'm sure you have already seen uh on the internet situations like where you don't want to buy something or you don't want to, I don't know, benefit from 30 days of deliver your guarantee if you want, if you are going to click. No, the message is sometimes something like no, I don't want free stuff. No, I don't want to donate or stuff like that. They are trying to shame you into doing that thing. Another one is the hidden cost. This is happening especially on ecommerce websites. So where they are, when only when you're getting to the last step of the checkout process, you notice there are some unexpected charges like I don't know, wrapping or stuff like that. And the last one is the bait and switch when you set out to do one thing. But a different and undesirable thing happens. Instead, this is also linked to the disguised ads but also linked to stuff. Like you see a product on the internet. You want to buy that thing, you are going to that one and then you see, oh it's a package.

I can't only buy that. I don't know little thing I wanted because it comes in a more expensive package moving forward. I think it's better just to leave the slides open. Uh We only have two more minutes if you want to find out more about the subject. I really love talking about this. I'll just skip to the final slide. I put here a meme to end on a lighter tone. So I'm sure this is about the situation. I was telling you about when booking a holiday, I wanted to book a holiday with my family. We are, we were going to be booking three rooms and I went on a big website which uh takes care of this uh kind of things. And I uh there were only uh just what we needed for the selected date interval. And then I was, oh my God, I was panicking. I was looking for my credit card. Let's pay, let's do this quick. And then I, I stopped and think, ok, this must be a marketing strategy and I calm down for a second. But then I panicked again. But what if it's not? What if I miss my holiday? And I actually did book uh last week. This was about two months ago, last week. My mother actually called the hotel because we wanted to book an extra room. And they said that uh for that uh interval, they uh have only two or three rooms booked uh except ours. So please be careful for this one because uh this urgency is sometimes also reflected in the prices.

And the last thing I want to say, I want to let you think about this in your own time. Uh If these psychological tricks and exploiting this, I don't know how to call them, they aren't really flaws. They are. I like to call them features or exploring these features from in our brain. Is this good or is this bad? Well, where do we draw the line? I think this is a matter of personal opinion and I love to hear it from you. If you want to connect, I, I would really love to hear your experience and your opinion on the, the ethical part, I think. Yes, I have one more minute. Uh, if you have any questions, you can leave them in the chat. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. As me, that the butt is always there. I'm always, when buying, I'm always wondering. Ok, but is this genuine or this isn't genuine? So, yeah, it's pretty much tricky ethically. If you have more questions or you would like to discuss more on the subject, please just connect and I'm looking forward to talking to you again. It was nice having you here and I wish you a nice day and enjoy the rest of the presentations. Bye.