An interactive companion to Rory Sutherland’s ideaverse
The hidden science behind why people really do what they do.
To economists, price is a number. To consumers, price is a feeling.
Four mindsets, seventeen themes and 2,874 insights
Lead with counterintuitive thinking, not conventional wisdom
01How value is created1,203 insights
Value lives in perception. These themes cover why the same thing can be worth more or less depending on how it is framed, signalled, and noticed.
Psychology of valueSignalling and costly signallingDistinctivenessHerd behaviour and social proof02How problems get reframed1,658 insights
Before solving anything, ask whether you were handed the right problem. These themes cover the sideways move, and the limits of reasoning your way there.
Limits of rationalityReframing and contextRedefining the problemLateral thinking03How the craft works932 insights
Advertising, nudges, tests, story. The working machinery of applying behavioural insight without fooling yourself.
Nudges and choice architectureBranding and advertisingExperimentation and optionalityStorytellingAlchemy04How organisations think470 insights
Why sensible companies do unimaginative things, what metrics quietly do to judgment, and where the discipline itself runs out of road.
Reverse benchmarkingGame theoryArtificial intelligenceBehavioural science