Quiz: How Well Can You Predict Behavior?

Last Updated on October 23, 2024

This question about behavior is from Dan Ariely’s “Irrational Game.”

Scenario

A hotel was trying to figure out the best way to encourage guests toward one behavior – to reuse their towels.

They showed the first group of guests a message emphasizing the importance of caring for the environment.

They showed the second group a message emphasizing that 75% of their guests had already participated in this program. Therefore, they should join their fellow guests by helping them save the environment.

44.1% of the guests in the second group reused their towels.

Question

What percentage of the guests in the first group reused their towels?

1. Only 10% as many as the second group.
2. About 75% as many as the second group.
3. The percentage was the same for both groups.
4. About 50% more than the second group.

Scroll down for the answer…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer

Number 2 is the correct answer.  About 75% as many people in the first group reused their towels as the second group.

Goldstein, N. J., Cialdini, R. B., & Griskevicius, V. (2008). A room with a viewpoint: Using social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(3), 472-482.

Explanation

Ariely explains why the first group’s behavior influenced the guests in the second group. As social creatures, we humans look at what other people do, especially when we aren’t sure. So, reading that 75% of guests reuse their towels signaled them to do the same.

If they imagined these other guests were like them, the tendency to mimic the other guests is even stronger.

Ariely says that this tendency to “follow the herd” impacts many things, including voting.

Read more about irrational humans in my post “At the Intersection of Nudging and Religion.” I review the classic behavioral economics study of participation in 401K matching funds. Companies offered employees a company match for their 401k contribution. This was free money – they put in 3% of their salary, for example, and the company gives them a 3% match. Did they take the match?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thaler changed the default choice conditions. Instead of the default that employees had to opt-in to get the match, companies automatically enrolled employees in the plan with the choice to opt-out. A huge percentage of employees kept the default option and did not opt out. The companies nudged these employees toward rational behavior.

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