448. Embracing Familiarity Bias: The Comfort of the Known

Welcome to episode 448 of the Brainy Business Understanding the Psychology of why People Buy. Today's episode is all about familiarity bias.

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You are listening to the Brainy Business podcast where we dig into the psychology of why people buy and help you incorporate behavioral economics into your business, making it more brain friendly. Now, here's your host, Melina Palmer.

Hello. Hello everyone. My name is Melina Palmer and I want to welcome you to the Brainy Business Podcast. Today's episode is all about familiarity bias. Our brains are wired to love the status quo and predictability. And for that reason, we also love the familiar. Because of the way our decisions are built on habit. The subconscious loves the familiar and therefore it shouldn't be too surprising to learn that we have a bias for it. That's what we're focusing on in today's episode, a refresh of the one that originally aired in April of 2021. And we're going to be talking all about what familiarity bias is, why it matters for you, your business, your customers, your teams, and more. Now, why did I choose to refresh this one today? It's because of the new interview coming out in just a few days time on Thanksgiving here in the States, a conversation with Dr. Carrie Leibowitz to discuss her new book, how to Winter. Perfect timing, right? So what do these two things have in common? Well, for one thing, winter is a season that tends to get a bad rap. Most people wouldn't choose it as their favorite, including Carrie herself before she started researching it and moved to a place in Norway where the sun doesn't rise for a full two months. We have habitual responses toward all sorts of things, those automatic and often conditioned responses where we say things like winter's bad or I hate the cold, but it doesn't have to be that way. You can actually shift that mindset that's become familiar and have a positive impact to the season and all sorts of other things that you might not have chosen but can't necessarily change. We even talk about job loss and career winters and things like that in the episode. It's going to be fascinating. And I knew it was the perfect primer to start thinking about familiarity bias here today. Quick reminder, if you aren't already subscribed to the Brainy Business podcast, now is a great time to do so. So you don't miss that or any other episode. And don't forget, there are links for my top related past episodes and books waiting for you in the show. Notes which are found within the app you're listening to, and@the brainybusiness.com 448 all right, let's talk about familiarity bias.

It probably isn't incredibly surprising for you to hear that your brain likes things it's familiar with. We've talked about status quo bias here on the show, and you know how the brain works. The subconscious brain makes decisions using rules of thumb based on predictability. It likes to know what's coming next so it can keep the reins, which means it has a strong bias toward things it's familiar with. New stuff may be a bit dramatic, jarring at first. Think about driving in your car, listening to the radio, and a song comes on that you've never heard before. Your brain is probably a bit skeptical. You consider changing the station and think, I'll give it a few more seconds. You might even hate it. And as you flip through the stations, you hear that hook and think, ugh, not this again. And don't believe you can change the station fast enough. But then, as you hear it again, maybe a little more of the verses, you may find yourself opening up to.

That song a little.

Or maybe it gets stuck in your head and you can't help but leave it on a little bit longer the next time it comes on. Maybe somewhere along the way it became one of your favorites, and you can't help but sing along to it in the car every time it comes on. While this won't necessarily happen with every song, I'm sure you've experienced this transition from hatred to love before. One key reason for this is familiarity bias. Perhaps you only disliked it that first time because it was new. Maybe it was always your style. Or perhaps you only like it now because you've become more familiar with it. Or maybe it's somewhere in between. The logistics of that whole chicken and egg conundrum don't really matter. What matters is knowing that the more people become familiar with things, the more likely they are to prefer them to have a bias toward them. So what does that mean for you and your business? First, let's talk about the pitfalls, the things to watch out for. Studies have shown that our bias toward the familiar can make it so we make worse bets that we invest in the wrong things that we'll be more likely to hold out in jobs that we've outgrown or keep pouring money into projects we should have let go of. That's a tie in with the sunk cost fallacy, which is very much related to this, but a little bit different. And it does have its own episode coming up soon. You've probably heard the expression that the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. This is a manifestation of the familiarity bias. Whether you were thinking about an actively sought out a change, or you were presented with an unexpected opportunity to try something new, but then decided to stick with what you've been doing forever, what's become familiar when it comes time to jump on that and you feel like you can't pull the trigger because something in your gut is setting off alarm bells that are telling you something's wrong, that it. It just doesn't feel right, and you think, next time I'll do it. That's a moment to stop and ask yourself, is this actually something to avoid? Or is my familiarity bias trying to keep me in status quo land? If you did the due diligence in.

Advance and you know it's a good.

Thing that you wanted to do, even though it might be a little scary, it's time to push through that feeling. Because you know your familiarity bias is just your subconscious brain liking predictability. That new job opportunity or relationship or project or apartment or whatever else is presenting itself will probably be scary at first, but that doesn't mean it's bad or wrong. Embrace the feeling and jump in, knowing that soon it'll be like that song you hated the first time you heard it. It just needed an opportunity to be heard a few times to get to the point where it's the new familiar. I remember hearing something really poignant on this topic once that I think was from a home organizer. Maybe I read it. I'm not quite sure where it came from, but the lesson stuck with me. I want you to imagine if right now I was to tell you that it's time to reorganize your entire kitchen. We're going to take everything out, clean out the clutter, and put everything in new spots that are going to improve the flow of the space. But it may take a little getting used to. As we put things back, your brain might say, but that's not where the bowls go, that's where we keep cups. Or the idea of moving the spices from where they've always been to have them conveniently placed for when you're cooking instead of walking across the room to get each one may cause your brain to rebel, even though it logically makes sense. To help combat this familiarity bias problem, that home organizer said, your home wasn't set up this way when you moved in. It was a choice to put things where they are now. Essentially, it's not like your silverware are native to that particular drawer or that basil grows in the cabinet to the.

Left of the pantry.

You made a choice to put them there once and it was new to you then. It was a transition when you first moved in and you made a choice with the best information you had at the time. Now that you've lived in it, take the time to do an assessment and consider what would make things better. What if the cups were next to the fridge so it was easier to get a drink? What if the baking stuff was all together in one place?

Sure, it'll take a bit of adjustment.

And for about a week you might open the wrong drawer to grab a spoon, but you're going to get past that eventually and much faster than you think. This will become the new familiar, the new normal. You will adjust. Look at how so many people adjusted to working from home during the pandemic or wearing masks. I was in the Starbucks drive thru a few days ago and the woman who handed me my drink realized she wasn't wearing a mask and apologized and she said oh, it was so weird. Something that just didn't feel right and I realized I had forgotten to put my mask back on. Can you imagine in January of 2020 if I had told you that not wearing a mask all day would have felt so wrong? Your brain was bothered by it? That would have seemed so foreign then at a time where many of us had never worn a mask in public. But now it's more familia. We've gotten used to it and the social distancing and having meetings over Zoom. It all became familiar enough so our brains are more comfortable with the idea now. The subconscious has accepted it as normal and predictable and the idea of going out without a mask may be difficult for some of us in the near future. Consider this same phenomenon with anything else in your business. Is there a way you've always done things that feels like you can't change it but might just be familiarity bias? Do you always read and respond to emails first thing in the morning and then lose all your productive time but not feel like you can change it even though you know instinctively that it's not helping you? Or do you have a project or other aspect of your business you feel like you have to keep doing because it might pan out eventually? Or anything else that's keeping you feeling comfortable and avoiding something that's a little scarier but could be a huge positive game changer for your business if you were to take it on. Awareness of Familiarity bias can help you ask that question. When you feel hesitant to take a step in a new direction, pause and ask why? Why do you do things that way? What if it were different? What's the worst that could happen? What's the best that could happen? How was it before you did things that way? How might someone do this if they were new? I've talked before on the show about the presentation I attended where a speaker said he fired himself every 18 months and that everyone else should too. If you fire yourself and approach your job as if you're brand new, what do those new eyes allow you to see that you might not have noticed? If you were stuck in your familiarity bias, what would not actually be that important? What might you change and feel awesome about? That slight reframe in perspective can make a big difference in your approach to the job and free you up to do some really cool things. Alright, now that we've talked about the pitfall and how to avoid it yourself, I want to talk about a way this can be really, really helpful for you in business and why you need to fight your conscious brain's belief that you need to always be doing something new and changing. I work with all kinds of businesses, from entrepreneurs to global corporations, banks to veterinarians, those who provide services and those who sell products, and I can tell you that the desire to do something new and different is rampant in all of them. This feeling that we ran that ad once and now it's done forever is something that people feel constantly. Marketing departments are always chasing the new campaign or promo or look that hasn't been done before. The problem is it's new and flashy and different and your customers are biased toward the familiar. We're a nostalgic species. We like to reminisce about how things were before, to see a familiar ad or hear that jingle we loved as a kid or that killer song that reminds us of our childhood or or teenage years. Don't be afraid to reuse an ad a few times or a few hundred times. People might like it more as they continue to see it. In episode 144 on the Behavioral economics of Disney, I share about how they found a great balance between keeping things fresh and taking advantage of that nostalgia and the familiarity bias. For example, that ride that you loved when you were a kid and maybe it was Ariel's Grotto or the submarine ride is now Finding Nemo, but it's mostly the same. And Pirates of the Caribbean is the same ride, but now you've got Jack Sparrow instead of a more generic pirate. If they would have completely torn out the entire ride and started over. It wouldn't feel as great to you. That familiarity, remembering what it was like when you went as a kid and being able to share that with a new generation that ties in with something else that you now love and have familiarity with. It's a really great way to make the old new again in a way that the familiar can be fresh. It's just a really cool thing that they're doing there at Disney. So there is of course a link for you in the show notes@the brainybusiness.com 149-so-you can listen to that if you.

Haven'T had a chance already, or if.

You just want to hear it again. To help drive this point home, I often ask clients who want to make constant changes. Do you think the people who work at Target are sick of the color red? Of course they are, but as a consumer that familiarity is comforting. If you didn't have the red concentric circles, you wouldn't have the tie to that brand. If there were no people in red shirts, how would you find someone to help you? The good news is this means that you don't have to constantly feel the pressure to reinvent every single wheel. If something worked, keep doing it. Maybe you want to do a slight tweak to see if you can improve on a good thing, but if it ain't broke, don't throw it out and start on something new. I had a client once that I'd worked with on a direct mail campaign that had amazing success. In case you don't know, the standard rate of return on a direct mail campaign is somewhere between a half a percent and 2%. So if you send out 100 mailers, they say you should expect that two to four people will open it and.

Half of that will buy.

It's not the greatest ROI situation. And this particular direct mail campaign we did was converting about 20% into new products for the client. It was a rousing and amazing success. They came to me about six months after we had sent out that mailer and said it was time to do a new one. And they asked me to come up with a brand new campaign to which I said, no way that thing is converting amazingly. Send it again. There are new people on the list now, so hopefully we can get the same 20% return. And for those who were on the list before but didn't get the product, you know, worst case scenario is they see it again and they may like it more because it's more familiar and those who hadn't seen it say they were on vacation and it was thrown.

Away in a massive pile of junk.

Mail that they didn't have time to look at. They have another chance to see it now. Don't waste the time and energy to try to get another home run starting from scratch. It works, so keep it up. It's the same thing with your messaging or packaging or whatever else. Allow yourself to not feel the constant pressure to always be coming up with something new and different. It's okay to prioritize an important project now and let something else that's doing fine sit on the shelf a little longer. It may be becoming familiar and making your customers like it and you even more with time. This is also an opportunity to be repurposing and resharing content where I have episodes of the podcast turning that same content into multiple blog posts, and to be sharing it on social media and in different articles and in presentations where the message is fairly similar from one to the next with maybe a little tweak. But I can say the same thing in multiple formats and genres. And when people hear me talk about the Snickers example or or that it's not about the cookie, they like hearing it again because they're familiar and they're able to kind of reminisce along with me when I bring it up again. So remember, you don't have to be coming up with something brand new every single time. Repurposing content is not bad. It's actually helping people to build that familiarity bond with you and your brand. And taking that a step further, some things are not going to benefit you if you change them up. They could actually be a detriment. Imagine if you went to see your favorite band in concert and they decided to change the lyrics and the notes to all their hits because they were bored of singing them. Would you be excited or feel cheated? What if Coca Cola decided to change from their signature red to purple? And I don't even need to ask about what would happen if they changed their recipe? We all know about the new Coke catastrophe that people use as a case study the world over. People in taste tests liked it better, but it didn't matter because that familiarity was in jeopardy. So again, when you're feeling like you've done something a few times, so people must be getting bored with it and they'll leave if you don't do something new and completely fresh and different, remind your conscious brain that it can calm down a little. And people like familiarity it helps them to feel safe and comforted and makes it easier for them to buy from you. So relax and embrace the familiar.

Bringing it back full circle to the tips at the top of the episode. If you have anyone, customers or team.

Members or family members who hate the.

Idea of a change and fight or.

Resist at first and give it a little time to let familiarity bias set.

In on that new experience.

Whether that's a week or a month.

It depends on the change.

Just get them to start and try it out for a bit and reserve.

Judgment if you can.

When I was a kid, my mom.

Had a rule about having to try.

Something new we weren't excited about just a little bit before we could say we didn't like it. Many parents have this rule.

We use it with food and things all the time.

Specifically, I remember this would come up.

With things like movies or TV shows.

That my sister and I thought looked weird. We were given a 10 minute rule. We had to watch 10 minutes of the movie and if we weren't hooked.

By then, we didn't have to watch it.

We would often rebel a bit at first, thinking we knew everything, but we would inevitably get sucked into the movie my mom knew we would like and it was all worth it. I can thank that rule for helping me to overcome my own familiarity bias and forcing me to watch Ferris Bueller. The world would be a much worse place if I hadn't been exposed to that fantastic movie as a kid and those first 10 minutes made all the difference. Thanks Mom. What do you have in your business that's best to keep familiar for your customers? What's something that you should use now to help overcome familiarity bias and get people to try a little something new in your business like a loss leader or other freebie?

So what got your brain buzzing as you learned about familiarity bias today? For me now, Familiarity bias makes me think about the work I do in the space of mindset and productivity, and specifically of my TEDx talk. There's nothing magical about Monday. Did you know that I did a talk at TEDx Portland this year?

It was amazing. There were more than 3,000 people there.

Live in the audience. The video is of course out on YouTube and we've had an amaz response to it.

Please do give it a watch like.

Comment, share whatever feels right for you. It's all about how often we listen to a great podcast or read a book or attend a conference and say that we can't wait to do all the stuff we feel inspired to do on Monday. Of course, Monday comes and we get sucked into the same old routines. Emails, meetings, slack chats. Those big dreams get put off for tomorrow again and again until eventually we stop thinking about it. Maybe even believing there's something wrong with.

Us, since all we tend to see.

From everyone else is all the amazing stuff they brag about on social media. But the truth is, as you heard about in today's episode on Familiarity Bias, our brains are wired for that status quo and to keep us there. But you aren't doomed to be stuck there forever. Knowing what's going on, understanding why, and a few simple tricks can change everything. And that's what I share in my TEDx. There's nothing magical about Monday. Check it out to learn four brain tricks that keep you stuck in the status quo. Three steps to get more of the right things done by leveraging two powerful words as you do one thing at a time as we close out the show, don't forget about those show notes with links to my top related past episodes, books and more. It's all waiting for you in the app you're listening to and@the brainybusiness.com 448. And just like that, episode 448 on familiarity bias is done. Join me next time for a brand.

New episode with Dr. Cari Leibowitz to.

Discuss her new book, how to Winter. It's going to be a lot of fun. You don't want to miss it. Until then, thanks again for listening and learning with me. And remember to be be thoughtful.

Thank you for listening to the Brainy Business Podcast. Molina offers virtual strategy sessions, workshops and other services to help businesses be more brain friendly. For more free resources, visit thebrainybusiness.com.