Known as Input Bias, people value an output more if they perceive significant effort went into it. An 8-hour presentation is rated higher than an identical 18-minute one. Marketers should fight the urge to make everything seem instant and automated; sometimes, showing the "work" is more persuasive.
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Prospects find unpolished, "ugly" proof like a raw Salesforce report screenshot more credible than professionally designed marketing materials. The rawness signals authenticity and interrupts the pattern of polished sales content, making it more impactful in de-risking a deal.
Customers often rate a service higher if they believe significant effort was expended—a concept called the "illusion of effort." Even if a faster, automated process yields the same result, framing the delivery around the effort invested in creating the system can boost perceived quality.
Using AI to save time on content can backfire if the audience expects authenticity. The value in human-created art, writing, or presentations often lies in the invested energy and personal story, which AI shortcuts can devalue in the customer's eyes.
Consumers perceive products as higher quality when they are aware of the effort (e.g., number of prototypes, design iterations) that went into creating them. This 'labor illusion' works because people use effort as a mental shortcut to judge quality. Dyson's '5,127 prototypes' is a classic example.
Since AI can deliver results instantly, customers may perceive the output as low-effort and thus low-quality. To combat this, shift the focus from the speed of delivery to the immense effort, experience, and investment required to build the underlying AI system in the first place.
When prospects invest significant effort in a co-creation process, their brains justify the work by elevating the outcome's value. This cognitive bias reframes the solution from ordinary to extraordinary, making price a secondary concern.
Consumers equate effort with quality and devalue work perceived as instant, like AI output. To combat this 'labor illusion,' stress the human expertise, years of research, or complex system development that enables the AI. Focus on the effort invested in the process, not just the speed of the result.
People want to learn from practitioners, not just teachers. The "overkill bias" means customers want to learn skateboarding from Tony Hawk. Your credibility is capped by your tangible success in the field you teach, making "doing the work" and proving your skill the ultimate prerequisite to winning in the info-product space.
Using a precise, non-round number like 5,127 creates an "illusion of effort" and intentionality, making claims more believable than a rounded number like "5,000." This psychological principle suggests that specificity signals thoroughness and purpose, increasing customer trust in the final product's quality.
When faced with the complex task of judging a product's quality, consumers often substitute a simpler question: how much effort went into making it? By highlighting the 5,127 prototypes, James Dyson masterfully signals immense effort. This 'labor illusion' imbues the final product with a perception of higher quality and justifies its premium price, even though the effort itself is irrelevant to performance.
