Homo economicus is the rational economic man; the figure used by economists to model rational decision making. Have you ever met him or shaken his hand? I certainly haven’t.
The idea of homo economicus, while perfectly practicable for the modelling of behaviour in the ‘ceteris paribus’ world of economic theory, does not sit squarely in the world which we actually live, play and do business. We, as individual actors, rarely exhibit such uniform, predicable behaviours. So what are the implications of this? What are the impacts of our actual, demonstrated, performance?
Jack Fuller, in his 2009 paper ‘Heads, you die’, explores the way in which our behaviors are able to be shaped using the concept of choice architecture – the leveraging of our predictably irrational behavior to shape choices and the outcomes of the decisions we make. Mr Fuller explores this concept in the context of public policy and outlines choice architecture in terms of both the tools available and the rationale for their use.
How else can these tools be used? What rationale and context can you explore in order to add value to your organisation and achieve the outcomes required to drive your business forward?
These five tools of choice architecture can leverage human behaviour to achieve optimal, or desired, outcomes:
1. Setting the default option in a set of choices

2. Offering ‘self-contracting’ to support commitment

3. Presenting and organising information

4. Designing physical spaces to guide behaviour

5. Supporting the development of social norms

How can you use these tools to help create positive outcomes in your space?
The exploration of choice architecture can help shape the world around us by influencing the decisions of the ‘tribe’. We have reached a stage where we must be cognisant of the way choices are laid out before us so that we can make positive decisions both for ourselves and those we expect to guide.

behaviour, choice architecture, economics, homo economicus

In the 1920’s Ernest Hemingway sat around a table of fellow writers and bet them that he could write a story in just six words. With great disbelief the writers took his bet. Hemingway quickly wrote six words on a napkin and passed it around the table. The words were: “For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn.”

Hemingway’s story was complete. It had a beginning, middle and an end. Needless to say, he won the bet.

Hemingway has so beautifully proven that you do not need pages of writing to tell a story. This is something that even William of Occam would have been proud of.

But why does such simplicity matter?

It matters because people’s attention spans are becoming shorter as they have to juggle, sort and process this overabundance of information. It matters because if your message is too long and too hard to read, you will lose people.

In 1971 Herbert Simon, a professor from Carnegie Mellon University was one of the first to articulate the concept of attention economics when he wrote:

“…in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it”

Next time you write a message, whether it is for web content, marketing collateral or an email, remember that in order to gain someone’s interest, you first need to gain their attention. If they like what you have to say, they will trade their attention for your information.

Attention Economics, Carnegie Mellon University, copy writing, Ernest Hemingway, Herbert Simon, information overload, Occam's Razor, six words, William of Occam