Shaping better decisions

“Should you marry them? Quit the job? Move across the country? Big decisions refuse to be solved like a sum. I study how people make life's biggest decisions,” said Adrian, whose new piece in The Conversation lays out steps for deciding well based on results from a current research project that focuses on “big life decisions”. 

In considering those moments that can reshape a person’s future, like choices about changing careers, getting married, divorcing, retiring or having children, Adrian’s research seeks to understand the patterns and pressures that shape these decisions, and to build a picture of how people navigate them.

“The worst way to make life’s biggest decisions is to not quite make them. To slide into a marriage, a career, a city, then wake years later wondering who chose. So, choose. Even imperfectly. The deciding is the point,” he said.

Responding to social influence

Another stream of Adrian’s research looks at the power of word-of-mouth. 

“Whether people are talking in person or posting online, conversations can have a major impact on what others buy, trust and choose,” he explained.

“Take for example online reviews: a few comments from strangers can influence whether someone completes a purchase, changes their mind or switches brands entirely.”

Such moments offer windows into how social influence works in practice.

“Take for example online reviews: a few comments from strangers can influence whether someone completes a purchase, changes their mind or switches brands entirely.”

Adrian is also exploring the role of gamification in driving engagement including a project examining how game-like features could be incorporated into customer loyalty programs. 

He applies research ideas in his own teaching, experimenting with ways to gamify an undergraduate consumer behaviour subject to see whether it can increase student motivation and participation.

Using nudge marketing to enhance environmental outcomes

To understand how people think about and act on sustainable choices, Adrian and his collaborators investigate how to “nudge” people towards options that are better for the environment, without removing freedom or making decisions for them. 

This behavioural science approach subtly guides consumers toward a specific purchasing decision using gentle prompts, visual cues and psychological incentives. It preserves the customer's freedom of choice while capitalising on cognitive tendencies and subconscious decision-making.

“We are looking at how we could use this technique to encourage people to choose more sustainable meals, which typically involves consuming more vegetarian, less red meat,” he said, adding that another project is looking at how to encourage people to choose more fuel-efficient vehicles.

To investigate these questions, Adrian compares how different groups respond when one part of an experience is changed. Participants are randomly allocated to different scenarios and researchers then look at whether those changes affect behaviour. 

This approach helps isolate what makes a difference. 

We are looking at how we could use this technique to encourage people to choose more sustainable meals, which typically involves consuming more vegetarian, less red meat.

“We start in a laboratory environment where we control all of the information, all of the experience,” Adrian said. “If an intervention works in that setting, the next step is to test it with an industry or government partner in a real-world context.”

Impact in behavioural science almost always runs through a partner. Find organisations that share your curiosity, treat them as collaborators rather than data sources, and the path from lab to real world becomes a lot shorter.

What’s next?

• Discover the UTS Behavioural Lab.
• Learn more about Adrian’s research.