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The Psychology of Habits

A talk I gave at the new Santander Work Café in London on how to use tips from psychology to stick to your resolutions and build better habits.

January 2024

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The Science of Small Changes: How Psychology Helps People Save

I chatted with Jon Hart from Moneyhub about how behavioural psychology can offer a unique way to look at creating and promoting financial products.

December 2023

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Behind the Smoke and Mirrors

By examining the most notorious financial frauds in history, what can we learn about how to better protect our money today? I contribute towards this article in The Investor magazine.

May 2023

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Money dilemmas: Should I change what I’m doing with my money?

I contribute a little tip from psychology to help Santander customers look after their future self.

Spring 2023

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Are there better days ahead?

I chat with Ben Covey and Simon Durling from Santander Private Bank about the psychology of investing when times are tough.

January 2023

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Chimps and nipples: Investing 101 course

I chat with Holly Mackay from Boring Money about the psychology of risk and how it relates to chimps and nipples. This is part of Boring Money's 'Visible' online course for women (requires a free login to watch).

November 2022

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Make consumer understanding more than a regulatory checkbox

As the UK Financial Conduct Authority release their final guidance on how firms should be doing more to improve consumer understanding, I share my thoughts on what 'understanding' really means.

August 2022

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Can supermarket self-service checkouts predict the future of hybrid advice?

I share my thoughts on the future of giving financial advice to customers and how it relates to the new human-less stores such as Amazon Fresh.

July 2022

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Why psychology is the key to unlocking Consumer Duty

With the FCA about to release their Consumer Duty guidelines, I share my thoughts about how companies who adopt a psychological perspective will reap the benefits.

June 2022

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Slipping into sludge: How to avoid evil nudges

When is a nudge actually a sludge? I share some ideas and simple rules on how to use nudges positively.

February 2022

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Plink plink, nudge nudge: Changing behaviour with just four words

Discover how a simple behavioural insight doubled sales of Alka Seltzer. Big results don't always come from big (and expensive) solutions.

February 2022

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We don't need (more) education

Does financial education really help people to change their behaviours with money? I offer my views in this Money Marketing article from Simon Bussy.

November 2021

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How psychology and user experience design can support vulnerable customers.

My talk for the Altus Webinar Series in 2020 on the psychology of vulnerability.

November 2020

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Homework: 5 psychological tricks for staying effective when working from home.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I collected together some ways psychology can help make the transition to home working a little easier.

April 2020

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Using behaviour change models for innovation

A short video made for 'Permission to Play' where I walk through some simple behaviour models which can be applied to innovation and creative projects.

November 2019

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Interview with Dr Robert Epstein

I chat with outspoken psychologist Dr Robert Epstein about the idea of self-management, behaviourism and behavioural psychology and how it relates to today’s digital world.

July 2019

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Designer Psychology 04 | Design resolutions

Designers and design teams are often now at the heart of creating self-improvement apps, websites and products. So it’s no longer just about changing ourselves, a designer can often help others change too.

June 2019

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Designer Psychology 03 | Placebo design

We know about placebos when it comes to medication, but could there be an equivalent in design? Could the effects of design actually be an illusion and could processes like co-design compound the placebo effect?

May 2019

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Designer Psychology 02 | Disfluency in design

I'm joined by interaction designer, Matt Jackson, to chat about when it's better to design something which is harder for people to understand.

April 2019

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Designer Psychology 01 | Psychologists who draw

I host the first podcast for online magazine, Designer Psychology. This episode introduces the idea that designers are actually psychologists who can draw.

March 2019

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When copy and coffee collide: The secret to financial copywriting?

What's persuasive geography, and could it be used to improve financial communications?

March 2019

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Fonts for learning: Why disfluency can help memory and learning

Sometimes keeping it simple (stupid) isn't an effective design principle.

February 2019

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How to make a behavioural resolution (and stick to it).

For the start of 2019, I look at how techniques from behaviourist psychology can help you stick to your New Year's resolution.

January 2019

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TV advert for Santander Digital Investment Adviser

Here's the new TV spot for the project I helped shape for Santander. The digital tool helps people consider if investing would be a better place to grow their money.

October 2018

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September 15: The birth of the inductivist turkey

What can a turkey teach us about attempting to predict the future?

September 2018

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Trading fast and thinking slow (Pt 3): Thinking outside the herd to give you the edge

Are trading decisions made in isolation, or are we influenced by others? In the last post in the series, I explore how sidestepping the herd could create an advantage when investing.

August 2018

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Yesterday's brain meets tomorrow's world

In the latest issue of Confidant from Killik & Co, I argue against the vogue of describing our brains as irrational; it's simply playing neurological catch-up.

August 2018

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The aesthetic-genius effect: Can great design create phantom features in the mind of the customer?

Exploring an interesting side-effect discovered when researching customer reactions to using Monzo Bank.

July 2018

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Trading fast and thinking slow (Pt 2): Staying humble can give you the edge.

The second post in the series for EQi, this time focusing on how behavioural techniques can help trading when emotions take over.

June 2018

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Trading fast and thinking slow (Pt 1): How knowing your brain can give you the edge.

The first article in a series for EQi, exploring how knowing your brain can give insight when making investment decisions.

May 2018

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Is our language stopping us from saving?

Why do we save less than our counterparts in other developed countries? My chat with Tim Bennett of Killik & Co about how the answer may lie in the very nature of the English language.

March 2018

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Outlining the Focus Six learning programme (Pt 2).

The second post about how I challenged myself to apply a set of self-management principles to develop a new programme for continued learning.

February 2018

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Pocket money goes digital with apps for children as young as four.

I talk about the psychology of saving and how children can be taught savings techniques in the Financial Times.

January 2018

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Money Talks.

Discussing the taboos around money and why in this day and age we are still so reluctant to talk about it. With Holly Mackay and Lucy Mangan.

January 2018

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Introducing the Focus Six learning programme (Pt 1).

If you have ever felt the amount you read, listen or watch doesn't correlate with how much you learn, this is for you.
Here I introduce a new self-motivated programme for continued learning.

January 2018

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Why the secret to saving can be found in Greek Mythology.

What does new research into savings behaviour have to do with a two-thousand-year-old Greek myth?

September 2017

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Walking in the Investors' Shoes.

My talk at the James Hay Retirement Wealth Symposium 2016 about how people really make investment decisions.

October 2016

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Robo Advice – Introducing Psychology to the Digital Journey.

Talking at the 2016 Altus conference about why the upcoming surge of robo-advisers need to consider psychology to be effective.

February 2016

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Is it time for Dadaist finance?

Does our current obsession with rationality in finance need a Dadaist revolution?

January 2016

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When you put humans into a maths equation, you get a land of chaos.

Writing about the importance of acknowledging people's irrational side when attempting to create digital financial services.

September 2015

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Here’s why Apple Pay will make you spend more (and not in the way you might initially think).

What's the psychological impact now cash is no longer the most popular form of payment in the UK?

August 2015

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Here's why you should stay away from your brain's potential.

Do we really only use 10% of our brain? And if so, what would happen if we realised its full potential?

July 2015

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Designers explain why nobody likes Hillary Clinton's campaign logo.

I contribute to an article for Vox magazine about why Hillary Clinton's campaign logo got such a harsh reaction.

April 2015

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The Psychology of Risk.

Balancing precariously on the edge of a building is the perfect location to talk about the psychology of risk. Created for Lorica Employee Benefits for presentation at their corporate summit on risk.

June 2014

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The Psychology of Change.

Sat on a train platform talking about how the psychology of change and how it affects our decisions when coming to retirement.

June 2014

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The Psychology of Car Design.

My appearance on Channel 4's 'For The Love Cars', doing a live experiment with children about the psychology of car design.

May 2014

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The day the kittens went viral.

How my experiment regarding online connections and popularity erupted into an internet phenomenon.

October 2013

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The psychology of design explained

I contribute to an article exploring the importance of an understanding of psychology when it comes to design.

January 2013

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That's all folks