When you can’t stop seeing the thing you’ve just discovered

2026-02-16

Download

I watched Home Alone and suddenly started hearing the theme tune everywhere. I thought I was going insane. But Tom Bowden-Green and Luan Wise explained that I actually fell for a fairly well-known bias. A bias you’ve almost certainly experienced as well. --- Come to Uplift Live: https://uplift-live.com/ (Use code NUDGE to get £50 off) Tom and Luan’s book: https://amzn.to/49aZnh3 Unlock the Nudge Vaults: https://ww...

I watched Home Alone and suddenly started hearing the theme tune everywhere.

I thought I was going insane.

But Tom Bowden-Green and Luan Wise explained that I actually fell for a fairly well-known bias.

A bias you’ve almost certainly experienced as well.

---

Come to Uplift Live: https://uplift-live.com/

(Use code NUDGE to get £50 off)

Tom and Luan’s book: https://amzn.to/49aZnh3

Unlock the Nudge Vaults: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/vaults

Join 10,428 readers of my newsletter: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/mailing-list

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew/

---

Today’s sources:

Costello, J. P., Garvey, A. M., Germann, F., & Wilkie, J. E. B. (2024). The Uptrend Effect: Encouraging healthy behaviors through greater inferred normativity. Journal of Marketing Research, 61(1), 110–127.

Cruz, R. E., Leonhardt, J. M., & Pezzuti, T. (2017). Second person pronouns enhance consumer involvement and brand attitude. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 39(1), 104–116.

Khan, U., & Dhar, R. (2006). Licensing effect in consumer choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(2), 259–266.

Lim, S., van Osselaer, S. M., Goodman, J. K., Fuchs, C., & Schreier, M. (2024). The Starbucks effect: When name-based order identification increases customers’ store preference and service satisfaction. Journal of Retailing, 100(2), 316–329.

Sahni, N. S., Wheeler, S. C., & Chintagunta, P. (2018). Personalization in email marketing: The role of noninformative advertising content. Marketing Science, 37(2), 236–258.

Van Boven, L., Dunning, D., & Loewenstein, G. (2000). Egocentric empathy gaps between owners and buyers: Misperceptions of the endowment effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(1), 66–76.

van der Meulen, M. (2022). Are we indeed so illuded? Recency and frequency illusions in Dutch prescriptivism. Languages, 7(1), 42.

Zwicky, A. (2006). Why are we so illuded. Retrieved from https://web.stanford.edu/~zwicky/LSA07illude.abst.pdf

Comments (3)