Nudge

I think Sam Altman of OpenAI has deliberately tried to build his fame. 

While other CEOs keep a low profile, he spends 95% of his time evangelising.

In this episode of Nudge, I explain why. 

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Today’s sources: 

Smith, R. K., & Newman, G. E. (2014). When multiple creators are worse than one: The bias toward single authors in the evaluation of art. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 8(3).

Wiebe Wakker spent three years driving from the Netherlands to Australia. 

Today on Nudge, we learn why. 

And we study the psychology of dedication.

Listen to the bonus episode: https://nudge.kit.com/7ec0a99ab3

Warning, today’s episode contains explicit language. 

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Today’s sources: 

Kruger, J., Wirtz, D., Van Boven, L., & Altermatt, T. W. (2004). The effort heuristic. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(1), 91–98.

Söderlund, M.Söderlund, M., & Sagfossen, S. (2017). The consumer experience: The impact of supplier effort and consumer effort on customer satisfaction. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 39, 219–229.

Are men who are insecure about their manhood more likely to buy sports cars? 

Do memes work for government communication? 

Does brand colour change the products we buy? 

And will an AI ever replace a police interrogator? 

These are some of the questions Jo Evershed, a psychological scientist and CEO, helps me answer on today’s episode of Nudge.

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Today’s sources:

CX Lab. (n.d.). CX Lab case study [Blog post]. Gorilla Experiment Builder. https://gorilla.sc/blog/cx-lab-case-study

Shang, J., Reed, A., & Croson, R. (2008). Identity congruency effects on donations. Journal of Marketing Research, 45(3), 351–361.

Tasnim, A., Kwan, C., Chahboub, M., Liu, A., & Humairah, A. (n.d.). Saving trees one meme at a time: An investigation into how meme-style posts influence behavioural intentions to water street trees [Unpublished manuscript]. University College London.

Every weekend, thousands of Brits order takeaways from independent restaurants. 

Or do they?

Because these independent restaurants aren’t actually what they seem.   

Pizza Hut, Prezzo, Frankie & Benny’s, Las Iguanas and many more chains are rebranding their food on delivery apps to appear like an independent restaurant. 

They’re exploiting our psychological bias for independent brands and fooling millions of diners. 

Find out how in today’s episode of Nudge. 

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Today’s sources: 

Chen, S. [@StanYM]. (2024, December 22). I served McDonald's at a luxury food convention [Video]. YouTube. 

Hoskin, R. (2026, January 17). Big chains accused of masquerading as independent restaurants on delivery apps. BBC News.

Lin, M. S., Sharma, A., & Ouyang, Y. (2020). Role of signals in consumers' economic valuation of restaurant choices. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 44(7), 1080–1100.

Zhang, Y., Fishbach, A., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2007). The dilution model: How additional goals undermine the perceived instrumentality of a shared path. *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology*, *92*(3), 389–401.

Nine months ago, I started to apply one of Rory Sutherland’s most common bits of business advice. 

Today on Nudge, I share what happened and if I think it works. 

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Watch Veritasim’s video: https://youtu.be/HBluLfX2F_k?si=_M2NqN4KPbBabDoI 

Warning, this episode contains some explicit language.

There’s one simple tactic that makes entrepreneurs 6x more likely to get funding. 

At least that’s according to today’s guest on Nudge, Harvard Professor Leslie John. 

She’s spent her career studying decision-making and reveals why: 

- Flawed leaders inspire more trust

- Authenticity gets you job offers 

- And how crying at work is perceived 

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Today’s sources:

Jiang, L., John, L. K., Boghrati, R., & Kouchaki, M. (2022). Fostering perceptions of authenticity via sensitive self-disclosure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 28(4), 898–915.

John, L. (2026). Revealing: The underrated power of oversharing. Riverhead Books.

John, L. K., Jeong, M., Gino, F., & Huang, L. (2019). The self-presentational consequences of upholding one's stance in spite of the evidence. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 154, 1–14.

Moore, C., Lee, S. Y., Kim, K., & Cable, D. M. (2017). The advantage of being oneself: The role of applicant self-verification in organisational hiring decisions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(11), 1493–1513.

Wolf, E. B., Lee, J. J., Sah, S., & Brooks, A. W. (2016). Managing perceptions of distress at work: Reframing emotion as passion. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 137, 1–12.

Have you ever finished a book you dislike just to say you’ve finished it?

Have you loaded up Duolingo at 11:55pm to keep the streak alive?

Have you felt the crushing disappointment of realising you forgot to record your run for Strava? 

If so, metrics might be controlling your life. And philosopher C. Thi Nguyen, my guest on today’s episode of Nudge, thinks that’s a problem.

Nguyen believes that our lives are increasingly organised around metrics and that these rankings don’t just track what we value. They replace it.

This episode contains some explicit language. 

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Today’s sources:

Nguyen, C. T. (2026). The Score: How to stop playing somebody else's game. Penguin Press.

On April 26th, 2026, Sebastian Sawe did what many thought was impossible. 

Running the marathon in under two hours.

Today on Nudge, I explain the psychological tricks Sawe may have used to break the record. 

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Buy Alex’s book Endure: https://amzn.to/3TdJv7P 

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Today’s sources: 

Blanchfield, A. W., Hardy, J., & Marcora, S. M. (2014). Non-conscious visual cues related to affect and action alter perception of effort and endurance performance. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, Article 967.

Carter, J. M., Jeukendrup, A. E., & Jones, D. A. (2004). The effect of carbohydrate mouth rinse on 1-h cycle time trial performance. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 36(12), 2107–2111.

Damisch, L., Stoberock, B., & Mussweiler, T. (2010). Keep your fingers crossed! How superstition improves performance. Psychological Science, 21(7), 1014–1020.

de Morree, H. M., & Marcora, S. M. (2010). The face of effort: Frowning muscle activity reflects effort during a physical task. Biological Psychology, 85(3), 377–382.

Gray, K. (2010). Moral transformation: Good and evil turn the weak into the mighty. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(3), 253–258.

Huang, D.-H., Chou, S.-W., Chen, Y.-L., & Chiou, W.-K. (2014). Frowning and jaw clenching muscle activity reflects the perception of effort during incremental workload cycling. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 13(4), 921–928.

McCormick, A., Meijen, C., & Marcora, S. (2018). Effects of a motivational self-talk intervention for endurance athletes completing an ultramarathon. The Sport Psychologist, 32(1), 42–50.

Stoate, I., Wulf, G., & Lewthwaite, R. (2012). Enhanced expectancies improve movement efficiency in runners. Journal of Sports Sciences, 30(8), 815–823.

Strack, F., Martin, L. L., & Stepper, S. (1988). Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5), 768–777.

Williams, E. L., Jones, H. S., Sparks, S., Marchant, D. C., Midgley, A. W., & McNaughton, L. R. (2014). Deception studies manipulating centrally acting performance modifiers: A review. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 46(7), 1441–1451.

In 1997, Miss USA won Miss Universe with one perfectly judged answer.

She revealed just enough to charm, but not enough to shock.

Harvard professor Leslie John says that's scientifically proven to persuade.

Her research shows revealers are more likeable, more hireable, and even more dateable.

In this episode, she shares why oversharing beats staying guarded, why privacy promises make us shy, and how putting fears into words can cure phobias.

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Today’s sources: 

Huang, K., Yeomans, M., Brooks, A. W., Minson, J., & Gino, F. (2017). It doesn't hurt to ask: Question-asking increases liking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 430–452.

John, L. K., Acquisti, A., & Loewenstein, G. (2011). Strangers on a plane: Context-dependent willingness to divulge sensitive information. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(5), 858–873.

John, L. K., Barasz, K., & Norton, M. I. (2016). Hiding personal information reveals the worst. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(4), 954–959.

Kircanski, K., Lieberman, M. D., & Craske, M. G. (2012). Feelings into words: Contributions of language to exposure therapy. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1086–1091.

Pennebaker, J. W., & Beall, S. K. (1986). Confronting a traumatic event: Toward an understanding of inhibition and disease. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95(3), 274–281.

Spera, S. P., Buhrfeind, E. D., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1994). Expressive writing and coping with job loss. Academy of Management Journal, 37(3), 722–733.

Katy Milkman shares one technique that could keep you exercising for 55% longer. 

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Today’s sources:

Gallus, J. (2017). Fostering public good contributions with symbolic awards: A large-scale natural field experiment at Wikipedia. Management Science, 63(12), 3999–4015.

Hershfield, H. E., Shu, S., & Benartzi, S. (2020). Temporal reframing and participation in a savings program: A field experiment. Marketing Science, 39(6), 1039-1051.

Milkman, K. L., Minson, J. A., & Volpp, K. G. M. (2014). Holding the Hunger Games hostage at the gym: An evaluation of temptation bundling. Management Science, 60(2), 283–299.

Rai, A., Sharif, M. A., Chang, E. H., Milkman, K. L., & Duckworth, A. L. (2023). A field experiment on subgoal framing to boost volunteering: The trade-off between goal granularity and flexibility. Journal of Applied Psychology, 108(4), 621–634.

Woolley, K., & Fishbach, A. (2016). For the fun of it: Harnessing immediate rewards to increase persistence in long-term goals. Journal of Consumer Research, 42(6), 952–966.