Aedge Podcast - Rarely Rational - Peak end rule
Jul 2, 2024
How to be memorable?
This episode is a new one in our ‘Rarely Rational’ series where we explore cognitive biases.
Madhavi Nadig and Jyothi Sridhar talk about the ‘Peak-end rule’
Chinese whispers - a popular children’s game.
Psychologists talk about two kinds of ‘selves’. Experiencing self and the narrating self. Are we playing chinese whispers with ourselves?
What is the peak-end rule?
The peak-end rule says we do not remember experiences accurately. The way we judge our experiences is mostly dependent on what we felt at our worst/best moments.
People curating their memories on social media exhibit a similar behaviour. Where their experiences are remembered by what they felt at the worst/best moments.
Childbirth is a classic example of how a positive ending takes over the overall painful experience.
Even seemingly boring movies can leave you with a lasting impression if the ending was great.
Madhavi’s experience with UPI both as a customer and as a vendor.
Raising awareness about ALS with a trend called Ice bucket challenge as an example for peak-end rule. The peak of this experience was the person’s reaction when the icy water hit them.
A recent Shark tank India episode had people who pitched about their makeup brand and one of their customer acquisition strategies was to conduct makeup tutorial events at 5-star hotels with free food.
If the last experience about a product was negative, Peak end rule is used to mitigate that negativity by way of giving out humorous error messages and leaving the user with a smile.
Experience with doctors
Ratings or NPS scores need to be taken with a pick of salt. Reviewers most likely rate the service or product with their bias of peak-end rule.
Spin doctors - people who are skilled at doing public relations for celebrities maintaining their reputation in the public to hide any bad raps they might have received at any point.
This podcast is brought to you by Adeptic Creative Labs with support from the team at Clearly Blue Digital.
Write to us at podcasts@adepticlabs.com.