Prime for Good Behavior with Family Cues

Researchers at Harvard University and University of North Carolina found that adults behaved themselves better when in environments where childhood playthings—such as teddy bears and crayons—were around. In the study, participants carrying out business around the playthings lied less and were nicer to each other than those in surroundings lacking items associated with childhood. For instance, the frequency of cheating dropped almost 20%.
     The implication for retailing? If we have cues of childhood in stores, then shoppers and shopkeepers are at least slightly less likely to yell at each other or steal the merchandise. Using these sorts of cues to influence behavior is called priming. Other research finds that it’s not only reminders of the little kids, but also of the oldsters that can prime us to behave.
     It’s said that Sam Walton introduced the idea of using elderly men and women as store greeters because they’d be approachable by customers looking for help, but that Mr. Walton was most firmly convinced to keep the greeters because shoplifting dropped so dramatically. “Nobody would steal from their grandmother,” he’s been quoted as saying.
     This story might be more apocryphal than accurate. However, it’s true that two museums in Moscow and two in St. Petersburg have sat a Russian grandmother by each of the museum’s most treasured artworks, the seated babushka silently underlining the message “Do not touch.”
     What about your store’s “do not” messages? “Do not steal.” “Do not try to take the item off the shelf by yourself.” “Do not smoke here.”
     You could post some signs and then hire a grandmother to sit by each one. Or you could put a picture of a pair of eyes on each of the signs. You see, the explanation is that family associations stimulate personal accountability.
     University of Newcastle researchers alternated between a picture of flowers and a picture of eyeballs on a sign instructing people not to cheat by failing to put money for their beverages into an “honesty box.” When the eyes were displayed, people paid nearly three times as much per ounce for their drinks than when the flowers were displayed.
     The Harvard/North Carolina researchers suggest that the cues be subtle, though, to avoid the recipients feeling they’re being manipulated and so reacting with the opposite of what we intend.
     At the Russian museums, many of the babushkas are dressed to resemble the artwork they’re guarding.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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