Today we will talk about active no. First let's think about how the world is usually set up.
Imagine we have a website to promote a book. It has a description, blurbs, and lists all the reasons people should buy this book with a big button that says Buy Book. That is the usual setup. But in this setup, how do we show disinterest in the book? The problem is that it doesn’t help us understand the difference between people who actively don’t want the book vs. people who just aren’t ready to buy the book. We only know about the people who want to buy the book in that moment. Maybe out of 100% of the website’s visitors, 2% buy the book. As for the remaining 98%, we don't where they stand. They might not be interested in the book at all. Or they might be interested in the book but not at that moment. We just don’t know.
Imagine if, instead, we had three buttons: Buy Book, I Never Want to Buy this Book, and Maybe Later.
This approach helps us with research. It helps us understand the difference in the reasoning among the people who choose not to buy the book.
Another option would be to have two buttons: Buy Book or I Never Want to Buy this Book. It gives us less data. But it also helps us influence people’s thinking. It changes the mindset and makes the visitor wonder whether they want the book or do not want the book. With this approach, we find that more people say yes. That is, more people are likely to buy the book in that instant.
For example, we ran a study where we sent people an offer for a very good loan pre-approval. These were people who generally visited places that offered a high-interest loan. We were able to get them pre-approved for a better loan. Some were given a form that had a number to call if they wanted to finalize the process. Others were given a form that had a number to call if they wanted to finalize the process in addition to a number call if they did not want to finalize the process. What happened? More people said they wanted to finalize the process when they were given two choices.
You see, when we are given a forced choice between a yes or a no—what we call an active no—we think more carefully about what we want. The option to maybe say yes in the future is taken off the table and we think about our choice in a more binary way. So if we are considering saying yes, we are more likely to say yes in that moment.
What are the lessons? The first is that we want to understand what people are thinking when they don’t act on a choice. If we want to change people’s mindset we can include a “No” option so that people more deliberately weigh the pros and cons of a “Yes” vs. “No” response. Often, the people who might procrastinate on the decision will move to yes.
And this is the story of active no. Both for research and for getting people to make a decision more often.
