Ravi Dhar is the George Rogers Clark Professor of Management and Marketing and director of the Center for Customer Insights at the Yale School of Management. He is an expert in behavior and branding who brings psychological insights to the study of consumer decision-making. Ravi’s research investigates fundamental aspects about the formation of our choices and preferences. His 4Ps Framework for Behavior Change outlines evidence-based “nudges” that can help make healthy choices easier, aligning behaviors with intentions.

Ravi Dhar: “This notion that providing information leads to better choices – there's very limited evidence for that. Providing information doesn't work because of information overload and because of distraction. It will not get their attention. That's where the researcher has to come in and say, when are people most receptive to this information? And that may not be at the moment of choice. It may be at other moments when they have a little bit more free time and they get this information.”

00:22 Intro to Ravi

01:36 Translating business challenges into research questions

03:36 Understanding what meta preferences reveal about consumer behavior

07:33 Three factors that might sabotage our choices 

11:25 What, how, and when to provide information 

15:20 Persuasion: “Making it fun”

18:35 Process: “Making it easy” 

19:51 Possibilities: “Choice architecture” 

21:11 Person: “Cost of delaying” 

22:54 Understanding the reasonable reasons why people do what they do

26:09 Differentiating between fact-based and feeling-based choices

27:58 Takeaways for changemakers 

Links

• Center for Customer Insights at the Yale School of Management
• Why Choosing Healthy Foods is Hard, and How to Help: Presenting the 4Ps Framework for Behavior Change
• Making Sustainable Choices Possible
• Getting Sustainability to Stick: Driving Long-term Habits in Consumers
• Unpacking the Climate Change Communication Challenge
• Challenging Assumptions: The Theory of Choice and Control
• How We Buy When Time Is Short
• How Much Are Millennial Engaged in Retirement Annuities?

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*The views expressed by the guests in this podcast don't necessarily represent the host’s views, nor those of his employer.