Published in Marketing Week , November 2025. A visit to McDonald’s reveals multiple psychological drivers that encourage us to part with our cash. Last time we met, we went out for a steak dinner . The time before that we enjoyed a breakfast coffee . Now it’s lunchtime, and we’re feeling a bit more burger-y, so we’re heading to McDonald’s. Let’s see what behavioural science tactics we can spot in the wild over there. Scarcity sells Scanning the menu, something interesting imm

Published in Marketing Week , October 2025. Public service ads are a good place to look for behavioural science tricks to help steer your next campaign. Ah, here’s October. Bringing golden leaves, darker mornings and cosy nights in. And also: Stoptober. Another invitation to kick that nicotine habit. Since its launch in 2012, Stoptober has reportedly encouraged more than 2.5 million people to try quitting. That’s a lot of cigarettes not smoked, and a significant reduction in

Published in Marketing Week , October 2025. Credit: Hadrian / Shutterstock Our behavioural science columnist Richard Shotton shares an extract from his and MichaelAaron Flicker’s new book, Hacking the Human Mind. In our new book, Hacking the Human Mind, we take a look at 17 leading brands and explore the behavioural science underpinning their success. Each chapter starts with a short brand story before quickly delving into the behavioural science meat. Here’s an extract from

Published in Marketing Week , September 2025. From cute cleavers to free popcorn, there are plenty of behavioural science techniques on display if you enjoy a meal out at Flat Iron. A few months back, we headed to Costa Coffee to scan for behavioural tricks at the popular coffee chain. This time, we’re stepping it up, it’s dinner time, and steak is on the menu. Let’s go and see how Flat Iron managed to clock up an impressive 10,000 steak sales a week by 2017. That was with 4

Published in Marketing Week , August 2025. B2B marketers have been slower to adopt behavioural science compared to their B2C counterparts...

Published in Marketing Week , July 2025. Marketers can have a tendency to see research as definitive answer – but as was the case with...

Published in Marketing Week , June 2025. A trip to Costa Coffee reveals multiple behavioural science biases that can make a significant...

Published in Marketing Week, May 2025. Behavioural science does a good job of explaining why utilising The Famous Five paid off so...