54 - The jam study: a lesson in listener psychology
The Credibility Minute · Jen deHaan
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Show Notes
A famous experiment involving a jam tasting booth revealed a counter-intuitive lesson: while a table with dozens of options attracted more attention, the table with only six options generated ten times the sales.
This is the "Paradox of Choice." In podcasting, we often clutter our episodes with multiple calls to action... like follow me, subscribe, download this, share that. When a listener (who is likely multitasking) is confronted with too many options, the easiest choice becomes doing nothing. To drive real results, you must reduce cognitive friction by offering one clear, specific next step.
In this micro-episode:
- The "Jam Study" and what it reveals about decision-making
- Why multiple CTAs lead to "choice paralysis" for listeners
- How to increase conversion by simplifying your requests
Resources:
Jam study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1057740814000916
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11138768/
Conversation on decision/choice: https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/choice-overload-bias
Paradox of choice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice
And more about this will be in the NEXT episode (#55).
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