In 2018, Jigsaw – a research unit inside of Google – wanted to learn how conspiracy theories spread online.
But instead of relying on assumptions and second-hand information, they decided to meet 40+ American and British conspiracy theorists face-to-face.
The Jigsaw executives were shocked by what they learned.
Especially when they saw where the conspiracy theorists got their information.
The websites that they trusted were a lot of things… but above all, they were poorly designed.
❌ In a word, they were ugly.
✅ But they were also clearly persuasive.
So what was going on?
A bit of psychology and behavioral science (as you might’ve guessed) were behind this strange behavior, and it can teach us some valuable things about what makes people tick.
Why Can Ugly Websites Better Persuade?
Google’s Jigsaw research team were shocked by what they found when they talked to these conspiracy theorists.
The Silicon Valley executives had always assumed that slick, beautifully designed websites were more trustworthy (which is why they spent so much time, money, and attention on “beautiful” design).
But in the conspiracy theorists’ minds, well-designed sites were a sign that the information had been created by the “establishment.”
And the establishment was what they wanted to fight.
Unattractive websites were more persuasive because of what they represented:
Fighting against the “mainstream narrative.”
This lesson in ugly design teaches us a few critical things:
- ✅ The psychological signals of a design are more powerful than the design itself
- ✅ We can’t let our own ideas and assumptions about what should work cloud our judgment about what actually works
- ✅ And last, our buyers’ mental modelsare incredibly important to understand if we want to gain their trust and their business
What is a Mental Model?
A “mental model” is psychological framework that helps people understand and respond to information so they can make decisions.
In our ugly website example, the conspiracy theorists had a mental model that said “good design = mainstream information and mainstream information = not to be trusted.”
Which kind of makes sense, if we take a moment to put ourselves into the minds of people whose lives revolve around niche theories and beliefs. Even if a mental model is not objectively true, it’s how these people see the world.
Another example of a mental model is one I came across while working with a Choice Hacking consulting client. They sell a low-cost consumer product to lower-income buyers.
The brand wanted to give their long-term customers a free gift to let them know they were appreciated (and keep them from leaving for a competitor brand).
But my client kept running up against a psychological barrier in the form of suspicion.
These buyers were offered a free gift, but responded by saying: “Every company I know is trying to screw me, so there must be a catch. No thanks.”
The brand’s low-income customers were so wary of being roped in with bait-and-switch tactics that they simply would not believe that a free gift was truly free.
So they refused to take it.
(This mental model, by the way, didn’t appear out of nowhere. It was created from this group’s lived experience that yes, many businesses saw them as easy targets for unethical behavior. So they had developed this mental model to avoid getting taken advantage of.)
It was clear from this glimpse into how this brand’s customers saw the world that more trust-building needed to be done.
Not by any fault of the brand itself, but because of the lens through which their buyers viewed the world – their mental models.
How to Better Understand Your Buyers’ Mental Models
Mental Models are a form of context – the circumstances or environment that surround someone at a particular moment in time.
There are many kinds of context that can affect if, when, and how people buy. For example:
- Physical Context: The environment where someone is interacting with your brand or marketing, like in a retail store. This also includes moments like trying to use your navigation app while toddlers are screaming in the back seat on the way to Grandma’s house.
- Social Context: This is the influence of social norms (what’s expected or approved in a specific social group), peers, family, friends, and work culture.
- Psychological Context: This is the influence that a person’s emotional and psychological state can have on decision making. If we’re stressed at work, we might order the same type of coffee every day to avoid having to make another decision, for example.
Other types of context include things like timing (if someone is newly divorced or just got paid, for example), financial (if someone is struggling to pay the bills, or prioritizes wellness over essentials in their spending), economic (if the news is talking about an incoming recession or the stock market crashes – like it did on Monday), and more.
The Bottom Line
Mental Models are why it’s not enough to learn about interesting psychology principles and behavioral science effects, without understanding how your specific customer is influenced by their own mental models and context.
To uncover your buyer’s mental models, start by asking yourself questions like:
- What negative experiences have these folks had in the past with companies and products like ours? What assumptions do they hold about our competitors (or our brand)?
- What are the mental and physical demands this buyer is juggling? What are some assumptions they hold about how the world works for people like them?
- Why would these folks not buy a product like ours? How trustworthy does our product or brand seem and why?