The increasing importance of Digital Psychology as a strategic toolkit

The increasing importance of ‘Digital

Psychology’ as a strategic toolkit6 December 2014

A little about me (@simonnash)

• Digital planner and content strategist

• Passionate about optimising services and experiences and an advocate for

digitally-led organisational change

• Helped Arts Council England, Pernod Ricard, Visit England and London

Business School transform the way they work with digital.

• Interested in emerging digital technologies and their impact on culture and

society meetup.com/Digital-Conversations

Introduction

Hat tip to Dr Chryssa Stefanidou

• Leading the introduction of behavioural sciences disciplines (Behavioural

Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Social Cognitive Psychology and

Behavioural Economics) at Reading Room in the UK

• PhD research involved extensive experimental research into the strength of

human relationships with media and how those relationships are shaped and

established within a psychological framework

• Currently working with Nationwide Building Society, UN FAO

Introduction

What I’m talking about...

Two things

• What do we mean by the term

‘digital psychology’?

• How we think it can be applied to

digital strategy?

Introduction

Everybody is talking about psychology

What is digital psychology?

Apparently psychology

is the ‘secret sauce’.

So what’s the fuss

about?


Psychologists attempt to understand the role of

mental functions in individual and social behavior,

while also exploring the physiological and biological

processes that underlie cognitive functions and

behaviors. Wikipedia

Enter the computer


Followed by the social network


Now mobile is upping the ante


http://www.dubberly.com/topics/design/1_personal_expression.html

Digital technology now as much a part of

culture as culture is a part of technology


Tech Culture

Fertile ground for media psychology


Inspiration for new specialisms


So web psychology is a thing?


http://moz.com/blog/web-psychology-whiteboard-friday

Yes.


Psychology applied to digital


Understanding rational and emotional

factors in house purchases

Psychology applied to digital


Understanding how to engender trust in a financial services brand concept

But...


We think ‘Digital

Psychology’ should

mean more than the

simple application of

psychology principles to

digital channels.


Complex systems demand more scientific

and experimental approaches


The great advantage of the experimental method is that the causal relationship between variables can be determined with much greater certainty.

This is done in two ways: by controlling all factors except the independent variable and by randomly assigning people to condition.

Changing contexts

1. Established principles

2. v.s. new contexts


Changing behaviour


Established principles vs. new contexts

Innovative applications

New channels

Challengesestablished thinking

Changing behaviour


So what is digital psychology...


Simples!


For example…

Sonja Song’s experimental research examined the psychological aspects of

sharing content on social networks and found evidence of Daniel Kahneman’s

‘Fast and Slow Thinking’. http://blog.sonyasong.com/

Sharing Fast and Slow

Applying digital psychology?


Sonja Song found that users’ unconscious attention (system 1) can be gained

through larger images, use of capital letters and phrases like Breaking News.



However she also found that more complex text could introduce cognitive strain

and shift the reader into conscious attention (system 2). Her investigation

indicated this may lead to fewer but higher quality engagements.



In other words whilst we should use impactful communications to grab the user’s casual

attention (System 1), more complex messages can then be introduced to engage more

thoughtful attention (System 2) and thus increase the likelihood of response/action.


Understanding multi-tasking & media


Encouraging adoption of new technologies


Encouraging adoption of new technologies


Designing the Internet of Things


To summarise…


The fundamental question is ‘how will

human relationships with technology

develop over time?’

Simon – Jaquin and the O/S

Closing thoughts

Digital Psychology brings together digital disciplines and the

behavioural sciences whilst introducing more sophisticated

experimental approaches to audience research.

We believe that ‘Digital Psychology’ offers us a hugely useful toolkit

to explore and understand the emerging challenges posed by new

technologies, devices and platforms.

So we’re going back to first principles to challenge our

methodologies to extract deeper insights from our research so that

we can conceive more sophisticated strategies and design better

services and experiences.

Hopefully today’s event will start you thinking about how to

apply ‘digital psychology’ to your own challenges?

Closing thoughts

So where’s the potential?

The increasing importance of Digital Psychology as a strategic toolkit

Marketing

term digital psychology

experimental psychology

behavioural psychology

web psychology

digital channels

digital strategy

social cognitive psychology

emerging digital technologies