Peak-end rule
aka easy design hint for complex human experiences.
Have you ever realised you remember the moment when the speaker almost fell off the stage during a keynote, but you hardly remember what the keynote was about?
This is a pretty common example that can be referred to many episodes of our lives in which we undergo a cognitive bias: this episodes are the proof that we are built to remember only what is worth remembering.
And emotions ❤️ help building our memory 🧠.
Some history pills…
The peak-end rule, by the 2002 Nobel Prized psychologist and behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman, describes the mechanics behind the bias in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology:
we remember feelings, related to experiences, which then shape our memory.
How does it work?
Referred to experiences with a defined beginning and end, the Peak-End rule relies on the capacity of the mind to collect our feelings in these two moments:
- during the emotional peak(s) — either positive or negative,
- when the experience finishes.
Everything that happens in the middle of these peaks, we easily forget.
Our memory perceives things according to the variables which are involved. Time is definitely not one of them. In fact, the length of our experience does not matter: as long as we are involved in an emotional rollercoaster, we believe our experience was memorable.
Why does this happen?
Kahneman has discovered our psyche is divided into our experiencing selfand our narrating self.
Experiencing self: lives in the present and has a memory shorter than a redfish. Every segment of the experiencing self lasts for about 3 seconds. The unites we remember correspond to the “emotional peaks”: the most intense moments (either positive and negative) and the end.
The rest simply…fades away.
Narrating self: is the curator, which takes the inputs from the experiencing self, covers them into a strong story and translates them into outputs: our memory.
Although we are not aware of the fact the peak-end rule is shaping our reality and decision making, this is how we unconsciously perceive most of our surroundings.
In Marketing: peaks and storytelling
If you ever wondered how movie plots can be so catchy, it is because they strictly follow a peak-end rule.
The first 10 % of every movie plot you have ever seen, is focused on making us fall in love with the main character. Let’s call him: The Hero.
We get to know her backstory, which is shaped around a special desire to succeed and, in particular, her conflicts. The information about the limits to reach the dreamed goal, create our emotional bond with the main character.
The Hero now experiences a series of positive and negative peaks.
They are usually five in total. But two are the most intense ones, and we can surely recall them in many movies:
a) The Hero is fully committed to reach its goal and there is no more chance to look back — positive peak.
b) It seemed The Hero was close to reach her dream, but something got in her way: she is not going to make it… it’s all lost. — (negative peak). But she decides to take an “all or nothing” chance to succeed (positive peak).
We need nothing more than these peak moments to be able to illustrate the full story. We can narrate it in 60seconds or 60minutes and the final feeling would be almost the same if the narrator is experienced (phenomenon labeled as the duration neglect).
In business: it’s about forcing peaks and the end
We can force peaks and deliver a grand finale in order to get people to feel emotional and remember us and we should learn how to properly do it from psychology in storytelling.
Amazon Go: We are used to go shopping and stand in lines, before we can leave with our goodies. With AmazonGo, we go shop for groceries and we are able to walk out of the store without waiting for long lines at the cashier desk: a memorable ending.
The Magic Castle: Is one of the top ranked hotels in Los Angeles. Not for its design or utilities, as the decor is dated and the swimming pool quite small. Not even for its price fairness. Its secret is creating for its guests a non-uniform experience: you can call a popsicle helpline and a man in white gloves offers you a selection of free ice-lollies, at anytime of the day and the night.
It has endless uses!
In Business Design: reviewing our customer journey maps under the eyes of the peak-end rule can help us crafting peaks and emotional ends in the customer experiences.
In personal life: next time we are greeting guests from home, let’s make sure they leave laughing. They will always have the perception they spent a great night, and we will be left with the same feeling. Worth trying!
In work life: structure your next work interview with a studied way to raise interest and, especially, to leave the recruiter with a smile.
Elisabeth Ben Thabetova, Business Designer in Outboxers. I am passionate about behavioural economics, User Experience and anything else which studies the motivation behind people choices.
