Writing for Behaviour – The Pratfall Effect

When I passed out in the middle of Universal Studios Hollywood… and at the birth of my son… people seemed to find it very funny. 

And my son now thinks it’s absolutely brilliant when he’s on the swing and I pretend he’s knocked me over. It tickles him no end. 

That’s because he’s already flexing his cognitive bias and demonstrating a common behavioural heuristic. The Pratfall Effect.

What is the Pratfall Effect? 

The Pratfall Effect is an identified behavioural bias that found we tend to prefer less-than-perfect individuals. We see those who make mistakes more favourably than those who are flawless.

And it makes sense right? No-one likes Peter Perfect or Little Miss Know-It-All.

It’s the reason why You’ve Been Framed is still on TV after all these years, and perhaps goes some way to explaining how Messers Johnson and Trump found themselves in the highest elected office in their respective countries, despite all their blunders.

How Does it Work?

The Pratfall Effect was first described by Elliot Aronson in a study at The University of Minnesota, which played audio of quiz show contestants to participants. Some answered questions flawlessly, while others answered all the questions correctly but could then be heard knocking over a cup of coffee.

Participants were then asked to rate the likeability of contestants, and those who’d had the ‘accident’ scored higher.

The reason? We can identify with them.

We all make mistakes and we can empathise with that.

We can all aspire to perfection, but we can never reach it. So any evidence of being too perfect if off putting.

It’s why mannequins in shops are purposefully made to look less than human. When realistic, fake human stands were used, they confused shoppers because they looked too real, too perfect. Too eerie. They need flaws.

How to use The Pratfall Effect in Your Marketing

Everyone has flaws and imperfections, so allowing them to filter through to your marketing, to your copy, can actually be beneficial.

It humanises your business. It makes you more likeable. And it can, counter-intuitively, make you seem smarter.

It’s why you might find the occasional typo in our internal blogs or emails. We’re not perfect, spell checking software isn’t perfect, and sometimes we just miss it, or just forget to check. It’s no big deal – and as long as it doesn’t compromise our ability to communicate, convince and convert – then it can actually make you more likely to work with us.

Odd, this cognitive bias, isn’t it?

You can use it to your advantage too. Here’s how:

1) Don’t always strive for perfection. Imperfections can be your friend.

Too many brands and businesses try to be perfect. They waste energy and resources on those final finishing touches that might not actually make any difference to sales. In fact, they could hinder them.

Take cookies for example. Richard Shotton, author of The Choice Factory re-created an unpublished study and found that 66% of buyers preferred cookies with rough, uneven edges, rather than those in a perfect circular shape. They looked more appealing.

Software too can benefit from imperfections. Most developers will agree that finding every single possible error combination and deploying a unique fix is nigh on impossible. So just embrace the imperfections like Slack do.

They know that mistakes happen. They’re cool with that. And they simply acknowledge the problem and their imperfections.

2) Don’t hide your mistakes or failures

If you do make a mistake in your marketing or there’s a cock-up in your business somewhere, don’t hide it. Because we all make mistakes.

Point out a failure or a mistake, and prospects will just think it’s an inconsequential weakness. You’re not bothered about it, so they don’t need to be.

It’s why case studies are so powerful.

Writing about real life examples – especially where your business might have struggled at first but then found a solution – really humanises your brand.

And it’s so easy to do. You could panic about a mistake in an email where you’ve offered a product for the wrong price, try and cover it up, hope no-one sees, and fret about the cost to your business.

Or you could send a quick “Oops, we messed up” email, and point it out. In the first example where you hide a mistake – customers will most likely try and make you honour the price… because you’ve ignored the mistake.

In the second example, they’ll just accept mistakes are made and not bother about it.

3) Own your shortfalls.

It all boils down to confidence.

Do you have the confidence to admit a weakness?

If you do, it can be a very, very effective marketing strategy.

Iain Banks had a bestselling book in large part because he published scathing, negative reviews at the front of his debut novel. He admitted his writing might not be for everyone, and the publicity those reviews generated were massively beneficial.

And then there was this masterstroke in marketing. The perfect example of how the Pratfall Effect can benefit your business.

A Word of Warning

For the Pratfall Effect to work, it has to be genuine.

You can’t manufacture mistakes or failures to try and profit from them. They’ll be too transparent and you won’t generate any goodwill. Quite the opposite.

We’re all on our guard for those trying to take advantage of the Pratfall Effect. We’ve all experienced those who try to act helpless, a bit silly and a bit naive, in order to get what they want without having to act themselves.

And you must be competent too. A consistently useless business won’t ride the Pratfall coattails for long. You have to be good at what you do so that a mistake just makes you more human, rather than highlighting your inadequacies.

But if you do go about business as normal, you will make mistakes. We all do.

And that, with the right copy on the page and the right marketing strategy in place, is when you can benefit from the Pratfall Effect.

Need help explaining your mistakes eloquently?

You know where to find us.