Behavioral psychology and how it drives decisions
Let’s start with the basics: behavioral psychology is aimed at understanding how people make certain decisions and what motivates them to behave in different ways.
The central idea is that patterns in our actions can help us predict how humans will behave under certain conditions and to specific stimuli – and influence that behavior.
It breaks down into two main tenets:
Classical conditioning: Learning by association. (You may be familiar with Pavlov’s famous experiment with salivating dogs.)
Operant conditioning: Learning by consequences – both positive and negative.
In the modern world, our attention is saturated with different stimuli and potential choices, making it difficult to process all the information that’s thrown at us. It can make already-complex decisions, well, even more complex to make.
By using the principles of behavioral psychology, marketers can identify what motivates their audience and use that to nudge them to action through cleverly designed interactive content.
Create better reader experiences
Curate the information you share
Encourage engagement
Reach wider audiences
Drive better content performance
Identify real intent signals
Even B2B purchasing decisions have an emotional component, with massive scope for risk and reward. As the champion of a great decision, your prospect helps the company grow and might receive special recognition, more respect, or a pay rise. On the flip side, if they’re wrong, it can be disastrous. They could be overlooked for a promotion, no longer trusted with major projects – or even lose their job entirely.
Studies show that the riskier the buyer perceives the purchase, the stronger the emotional connection with the brand.
