Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behaviour

Citation

Daunt, K.L. (2010), "Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behaviour", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 24 No. 6, pp. 487-488. https://doi.org/10.1108/08876041011072609

Researchers interested in studying the “dark‐side” of service will note that the perceived rationality of dysfunctional behaviours is often subjective in nature. For example, from an organization's perspective a patron who physically strikes a front‐line employee may be deemed by the management (and indeed the employee) as irrational and overdramatic. However, from the consumer's position, such behaviour may be reasoned as a logical and rational reaction to a dissatisfactory or unfair situation. Thus, given the increasing volume of research which suggests that dysfunctional behaviour is performed by “normal” individuals (as opposed to the mentally estranged) and that misbehaviour is representative of customer behaviour overall (see Fullerton and Punj, 2004), the issue of rationality appears pertinent to the study of the dark side of customer service. What makes seemingly “normal” individuals conduct themselves in an irrational manner? The book Sway, written by brothers Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman attempts to provide the reader with a glimpse into psychological underbelly of human consciousness, offering insight into the root causes of why all of us fall prey to irrational thought processes and behaviours, despite thinking otherwise!

At just 206 pages in length, Sway provides the reader with a light‐hearted and quick read. The text is written in a breezy, anecdotal style, feeding the reader “clues”, as to the powers which interact to irrationally “sway” our opinions and behaviours. The authors manage to seamlessly merge examples (which are numerous), with discussion, resulting in an extremely digestible text. In addition to a preface and epilogue, Sway has eight chapters, each introducing a new psychological force for the reader to consider.

Using the example of one of the worst aviation disasters in history, chapter one, entitled “Anatomy of an accident” introduces the concept of “loss aversion” (we may act irrationally to avoid/minimise losses). Here the authors detail the case of Van Zanten, the renowned safety conscious and rational KLM captain, who driven by the sway of loss aversion (wanting to minimise delay to customers and staff), caused the unprecedented deaths of 584 passengers and crew. Using this and other examples the authors illustrate how as humans we are prone to overreacting to perceived losses and are easily swayed into irrational decision making processes.

Chapter two focuses on the power of “commitment”, building on “loss aversion”, the authors detail examples wherein individuals become committed to avoiding losses to the extent that they are swayed into irrational behaviour. One particularly interesting example of this psychological force is demonstrated by Professor Bazerman's twenty‐dollar bill auction. Here, the authors describe how during his first class of every year, Professor Bazerman offers a twenty‐dollar note up for auction to his students. The Professor enforces only two rules. Rule one is that bids are made in one dollar increments. Rule two details that while the winner gets to keep the money, the runner up must honour their last bid whilst receiving nothing in return. Using the concepts of “commitment” and “loss aversion”, the authors explain how these two forces feed off of one another to sway bidders to behave irrationally – bidding up to $204 for a twenty dollar bill!

Chapter three, intriguingly entitled “The Hobbit and the missing link”, draws on examples from both anthropology and marketing to outline the sway of “value attribution”. In particular, the authors provide a number of illustrations which warn marketers of devaluing their products or brands through price reductions. To demonstrate this, the Brafman brothers refer to the case of Nathan's hotdogs who, as a new business, attempted to undercut their competitor's prices by fifty percent. However, this tactic resulted in negative consumer perceptions (consumers believed that the discounted hotdogs were substandard) and ultimately a devalued brand. Only in understanding the sway of “attribution” was the company able to overcome this problem. In order to persuade passing customers that their hotdogs were appetizing and that the brand was trustworthy, Nathan's hired doctors clad in white coats and wearing stethoscopes around their necks to stand outside of his shop consuming their hotdogs! Whilst perhaps rather crude, the authors claim that this trick provided the impetus for the ensuing company's success!

Chapter four presents the sway factor termed “diagnosis bias”, which the authors define as “our propensity to label people, ideas, or things based on our initial opinions of them – and our inability to reconsider those judgements once we've made them” (p. 70). To demonstrate this power, the authors draw on the work of economists Staw and Hoang, who statistically derive a link between the position of an NBA player's draft selection and the longevity of their career. It appears that in spite of a player's attainment for scoring potential, toughness and quickness, that diagnosis biases predetermines the sport persons playing time, likelihood to be traded and ultimately career length.

The discussion of labelling continues in chapter five entitled “The bipolar epidemic and the chameleon effect”. Here, the authors claim that all of us are “psychological chameleons” in that we assume either positive or negative traits assigned to us by others or indeed ourselves, thus creating a self‐perpetuating sway effect. To demonstrate this psychological force the authors detail a number of studies including a research project which reveals that senior citizens who hold negative and external feelings about ageing, physically age faster than those who have a positive outlook. In addition, a rather dubious example of a study which comprises a female research assistant waiting at the end of a shaky suspension bridge trying to give out her phone number to male hikers is offered. For those curious, the authors use this study to contend that the adrenaline and anxiety experienced while crossing the rickety old bridge affected the men's psychological reaction to the female research assistant in an amorous fashion. However, as a reader I was left wondering how this is an example of the authors espoused “chameleon effect” given that the labelling occurred on an internal basis and was regarding another individual (and did not affect the behaviour or appearance of the research assistant).

As someone who is fascinated by the activities of “deviant” consumers, I personally enjoyed reading chapter six which is comically entitled “In France, the sun revolves around the earth”. Introducing the sway factor of “fairness”, the authors draw on an intriguing cross‐cultural comparison of the popular television show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”. Using the case of a French contestant who was unable to answer the question “what revolves around the earth?” the authors describe how during “ask the audience”, the audience members purposely gave the contestant the wrong answer, thus sabotaging their chance at progressing in the quiz and becoming a millionaire winner! Why would the audience behave in such an unsporting fashion? The Brafman brothers conclude that the audience intentionally behaved in a deviant manner because they believed it to be unfair that such an unintelligent individual should progress any further in the show! The authors also show comparable findings with the Russian version of the TV show. However, in this case the evidence suggests that the audience deliberately misled both intelligent and less intelligent competitors alike, owing to the belief that persons who depart from the norm (i.e. were super wealthy or poor), were a threat to the whole community. Consequently, the authors conclude chapter six with a short discussion of fairness as force of irrational behaviour and how perceptions of fairness differ across cultures.

Chapter seven presents the reader with the “altruism‐pleasure conflict”. During this discussion the authors assert that “we have two ‘engines’ running in our brains that can't operate simultaneously” (p. 142). The authors go on to describe that as humans, we approach tasks either from a “self‐interested” or “altruistic” viewpoint. To illustrate this theory the authors present a number of examples which depict individuals behaving in either unexpected ways (Swiss residences allowing a land‐fill site to be built near to their homes for no financial compensation, but conversely when money is offered in a different scenario, no figure is deemed compensation enough), or underperforming (academically) owing to the presence or lack of monetary incentives. Thus, the authors rather controversially defy the traditional economic model and conclude that financial incentives are redundant and that marketers should focus on the sway of a consumer's “pleasure centre”.

The final psychological force discussed in Sway (chapter eight) concerns group influence. One particularly humorous scenario used to describe this widely documented and accepted effect details the participants of an experiment who knowingly called out an incorrect measurement of a drawn line in order to adhere to group consistencies. Bringing the book full circle, the authors return to the earlier example of Captain Van Zanten, as portrayed in chapter one, to illustrate the power of group sway. Here, the authors argue that had group dynamics been functioning correctly at the time of the fateful KLM flight, then the catastrophic events that followed Captain Van Zanten's decisions would not have occurred. To finish, summing up their findings, the authors argue that “it is only by recognizing and understanding the hidden world of sways that we can hope to weaken and curb their power over our thinking and our lives” (p. 181).

Overall, the book provides the reader with an enjoyable and cheery read. However, a summary of the key psychological factors discussed within the text would have been of use within the concluding chapter, thus enabling the reader to recap and revisit at a later date. In its current format this process is left to the reader by means of connecting the examples and chapters together, which is cumbersome. My main criticism of Sway lies in its lack of criticality and academic rigour. Given the lack of alternative and contrasting perspectives and examples, as a reader you might be forgiven for concluding that the book is self‐fulfilling. The proposed examples appear to largely fit the author's viewpoint. However, how many disparate scenarios might also be sourced to discredit or question the offered sway factors? In addition, I am uncomfortable with the author's apparent preconception that irrational behaviour is inherently negative. While the examples offered within the book are used as a mechanism to illustrate this, I personally know of many examples where the seemingly irrational decisions or behaviours of individuals have resulted in comfort, gain and physical well‐being.

To conclude, predictably many of the forwarded means of influencing individuals are well known by marketers and advertisers. However, with its mixture of anecdotes and popular psychology, Sway provides a compulsive read for marketers, academics and wider audiences alike. From a personal viewpoint, since reading the text I have certainly found myself evaluating “sway filled” scenarios in a very different light.