Updated Oct 2026: A short 2015 note about Dan Ariely's TED talk. Buyer psychology later became the centre of how I work, so I've added a little more on why it matters. Originally published 2015-02-17 on phillipohren.com.
A good friend, Alex Asigno, recently drew my attention to this TED talk on Behavioral Economics by Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational.
In short, it’s not conversion rate optimisation. In fact, this strategy could even go against some of the more common UX best practices. Behavioral Economics looks to work out WHY we choose what we do instead of how. It’s incredibly exciting, and it is something all marketers should start exploring further.
Images are linked to their Wayback Machine copies for now and need re-hosting before publishing. Archived from the Wayback Machine, October 2026.
