Dan Monheit on why he wrote a behavioural science book for marketers
Originally shared by AdNews 2.2.23
Dan Monheit - founder and CEO of creative agency Hardhat, Bad Decisions podcast host and board member - can now add author to his list of accomplishments after the release of his first book The Why, The Book.
The Why, The Book answers 30 questions about weird yet relatable human behaviours, providing creative solutions designed to help business leaders and marketers understand the quirks of human nature and bypass biases to create better strategies for behavioural change.
AdNews spoke to Monheit about what prompted him to write the book, how the industry is embracing behavioural science and why marketers need to understand the irrationalities of human nature if they’re to succeed in creating better campaigns.
“It was definitely something that had been on the cards for longer than I would probably admit.”
“Things tend to happen slowly and then all at once, and it was about September last year that Sophia [Prendeville, Hardhat’s client engagement lead] said, ‘Why don't we try and get this book out for Christmas? I don't think it'd be that hard: we've produced a lot of the content already and we’ve still got around 12 weeks or so’.
“I thought it seemed like a pretty reasonable undertaking. Surprisingly, it was a bit more work and a lot more fun than we might have anticipated!”
The book comes off the back of the fortnightly The Why newsletter, something Monheit had already been sending out to thousands of marketers for the last couple of years.
“The thing that prompted The Why was partly my own curiosity - just always noticing and wondering about very peculiar human behaviours. Then, lots of other people asking me questions - it all started when a friend asked me why she felt inclined to hold on to the boxes from her expensive shoes and jewellery, and it just sort of spiralled from there.
“The next thing you know, I had people asking me about everything from standing outside full restaurants, to New Year's resolutions, to horse milk. It became this real labour of love - it's one of those things where every fortnight when it came around, it's like ‘I can't believe it's already been two weeks and I have to do another one’, but it’s literally the most fun thing I do every fortnight.
“Writing the book almost seemed like a no brainer. Lots of people were asking if we're going to do a book version, and we said ‘yeah, let's just have a crack’."
Monheit said the ‘wave’ of behavioural science has been rising as more marketers become aware of the subconscious cognitive biases responsible for our actions.
“I'm doing what I can here, but people like Rory Sutherland in the UK and Dan Ariely in the US show there's a lot of really great thinkers out there, and more importantly, a lot of really great work coming out of the field.
“I think all marketers are starting to remember that we are all in the game of behaviour change. A field of study dedicated entirely to why people behave the way they do and choose the things they do feels like a pretty good thing for us to get across."
Monheit said that marketers are an inherently curious bunch who spend a lot of time reading, writing and asking how things work – so it’s important for them to ask questions about our own motivations and desires as humans.
“There’s questions about how all these different things work - Web3, ChatGPT, attribution models, social media marketing, content marketing. It's great that we ask all of these things, but the thing that we don't tend to ask anywhere near enough, especially as we get later in our careers, is how people work.
“People are a pretty important second half of the equation to all the other stuff that we're trying to understand. The other reason that it’s important for marketers to understand human behaviour is because in the absence of asking how people work, we tend to assume that they work like pragmatic, rational individuals, when in reality, most of our decisions couldn't be further from pragmatic and rational if we tried.”
Monheit said that because the illustrations and the majority of the copy had been completed prior to actually starting work on the book, the biggest consumption of time went to editing and refining.
“Once that was done, we had to work out what the hell is the process to go from a PDF on a screen to a beautiful, illustrated, fun, interesting book on the shelves.
“The guys at Good One Creative, who did all the illustrations, looked after all the publishing side as well and they were just invaluable in hustling to work it out.
“I actually woke up yesterday morning to see we’re already the number one bestseller on Amazon in the Marketing & Consumer Behaviour category. I almost fell off my chair! You ask if people are getting more interested in behavioural science, the answer is yes – at least this week from a sample of one.”
Monheit said there’s three books that he’d recommend to those interested in finding out more about behavioural science.
“For me, the classics are Nudge from Richard Thaler, it's one of the originals; Predictably Irrational from Dan Ariely was sort of the one that I think really set me on the path [to writing my own book]; and Rory Sutherland’s most recent one called Alchemy is a great read as well."
Monheit said that the curiosity marketers display means that they’re the prime market for this book.
“If you're a marketer, then somewhere deep inside you is an inherent curiosity about why people do the things that they do. This book is a really fun, easy read that will help you understand and notice things that have been happening around you your whole life.”
