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You Might Be A Choice Architect If...
When there are no lives to save, firefighters spend some of their time trying to prevent tragedy by going door to door and asking people to let them install smoke detectors in their homes. The entire process is quick and free.
The recommended number of smoke detectors for the average household is between 3 and 4. So, firefighters going door to door are looking to install a minimum of 3 alarms. Unfortunately, most people are overly optimistic (see optimism bias) and believe that their house is safer than it really is.
They think the chances of their house catching fire and burning to the ground are pretty slim and for that reason, most homeowners will let firefighters install one smoke detector, but not three.
Reframing
The firefighter has to find a way to make people want three smoke detectors.
For those of you wondering where this is going and how it relates to business: in a different context, one could see how this might be the problem of a company trying to get people to want what they’re selling.
The key element of making anyone want anything is the context in which the option is presented. Consider this scenario as opposed to the first I described:
