We are wired by conversational rules (pragmatics) to assume superfluous information is important. When given irrelevant but descriptive details, we ignore the statistical base rate because we assume the details were provided for a reason, a cognitive quirk that can be exploited.

Contrary to the belief that big B2B decisions are purely rational, they are more susceptible to biases. With infrequent, high-stakes purchases like enterprise software, decision-makers face greater uncertainty and are more likely to rely on mental shortcuts and biases like social proof.

A marketer ignored a glaring typo on a six-figure exhibition stand. The decision to "bury their head in the sand" paid off, as no one from leadership or the audience noticed. This suggests for certain errors, the cost and attention of a fix can be worse than the actual mistake.

Humans naturally conserve mental energy, a concept Princeton's Susan Fisk calls being 'cognitive misers.' For most decisions, people default to quick, intuitive rules of thumb (heuristics) rather than deep, logical analysis. Marketing is more effective when it works with this human nature, not against it.

Human vision has two modes: sharp central focus (foveal) for details like text, and wide peripheral vision that scans for general signals like shape, color, and movement. Since peripheral vision detects things first but cannot read, visual marketing must grab attention with imagery before communicating details with text.

Our brains favor things that are easy to think about ('processing fluency'), subconsciously misattributing this ease as a positive feeling toward the product itself. Subtle cues like font matter immensely; a slim font for a 'slim' phone can increase purchase intent by 27% simply because the visual aligns with the message.

The brain misattributes the cognitive effort of reading with the perceived physical effort of a task. In a study, when exercise instructions were written in a complex font, participants estimated the routine would take over 15 minutes. When the exact same instructions were in a simple font, the estimate dropped to just 8 minutes.

A neuroscience experiment showed that inserting one different frame into a 30fps video, unnoticed by the viewer, was enough for the subconscious to fixate on it. This demonstrates the brain's profound sensitivity to subliminal information hidden in modern media.

The novelty of AI-generated content wears off quickly. As audiences are exposed to more AI outputs (text, images, websites), they rapidly develop a sensitivity to its patterns and templates. What initially seems impressive and polished soon becomes recognizable as low-effort and cheap.