Why do people happily pay over the odds for bottled water, queue patiently for a pint of Guinness, or go back to Amazon again and again without really shopping around?
If your first answer is "brand love", Hacking the Human Mind is here to gently tap you on the shoulder and say: not quite.
Richard Shotton and MichaelAaron Flicker’s new book, Hacking the Human Mind: The behavioral science secrets behind 17 of the world's best brands, is a guided tour of what actually drives those choices - the biases, shortcuts and quirks of human psychology that sit behind some of the most successful brands on the planet.
And, it’s our pick for your next must-read.
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If you work in marketing, you are in the behaviour change business. Media plans, creative, CX, pricing, promos - all of it is ultimately about nudging someone from "maybe" to "yes".
Behavioural science is the toolkit that helps you do that with fewer hunches and more evidence. Decades of experiments show that:
Shotton and Flicker use brands like Apple, Amazon, Dyson, Red Bull and Starbucks to show how those findings play out in the wild, not just under a lab supervisor’s watchful eye.
Instead of starting from "what do we want to say", the book flips the question to "how does the human mind actually make decisions" - then reverse engineers what the best brands are doing with that insight.
If you have read Richard’s earlier books, you will recognise the same mix of rigorous research and mischievous real world examples.
Hacking the Human Mind feels like the natural next step - moving from "here are the biases" to "here is how 17 of the world’s biggest brands quietly build those biases into their products, pricing and communications".
Short answer: anyone whose job depends on people doing something different on Monday than they did on Friday.
Slightly longer answer. You will get a lot out of this if you are:
It is also super readable. Expect a practical guide filled with techniques you can try right away, rather than a dense academic text you promise to finish "after this pitch".
The book is structured around 17 famous brands and the behavioural principles that fuel their success. Without giving too much away, here are a few of the themes that crop up.
Making waiting feel worth it
One recurring question in the book: how does a two-minute wait make Guinness taste better?
Shotton and Flicker explore how ritual, anticipation and perceived craft can turn "delay" into "signal of quality". For marketers, it is a reminder that:
If you are working on onboarding flows, retail experiences or service design, that chapter alone will get you thinking differently about where you are smoothing things that might be better celebrated.
Habit, default and the Amazon effect
What is it about Amazon that pulls people back again and again? The book looks at how habit loops, defaults and removal of cognitive effort combine to make "I will just check Amazon" the automatic first move.
Key takeaway for marketers: being the easy choice often beats being the "best" choice. The brand that wins may simply be the one that removes a couple of mental steps in the journey.
Pricing that rewires perceived value
Another thread running through the case studies is pricing psychology. Why are people happy to pay a premium for something as basic as water, or for products that could be functionally replaced at half the price, like vacuum cleaners?
You will see:
If you have ever sat in a pricing meeting that started with "what can we get away with", this gives you a healthier, consumer-centred way to think about it.
Fame, fluency and the big brand advantage
Across Apple, Dyson, Red Bull, Starbucks and more, the book keeps coming back to mental availability - being the brand that springs to mind first in a given situation.
Rather than treating "fame" as something magic, Shotton and Flicker break down the behavioural science behind it:
It is a useful counterweight to the idea that you can optimise your way to growth purely through micro-targeting.
By the final chapter, you will not just have a list of clever tricks big brands use. You will have:
Most importantly, you will probably find yourself looking at your own brand and asking better questions.
Where are we relying on rational arguments when a simple tweak to context would do more?
Where are we smoothing all the texture out of our experience in the name of "frictionless"?
Where could we build in a tiny ritual, a smart default or a more distinctive cue?
If those questions feel exciting rather than terrifying, Hacking the Human Mind deserves a spot on your reading pile. And once you have read it, do not be surprised if you start seeing behavioural science everywhere - in your shopping basket, your media plan and your next big idea.