WORK, BEHIND THE SCENES
Featured Research
Awe; literacy; and AI adoption; designing for wonder while protecting judgement
Lower technical literacy often predicts greater enthusiasm for artificial intelligence; novelty and speed elicit awe; awe lowers scrutiny; adoption rises. Emerging evidence suggests that people…
A B tests; divergent delivery; and behavioural validity; why platform experiments mislead and how to design for truth
Marketers trust split tests because random assignment promises clean inference; on social platforms that promise is fragile; delivery algorithms quietly match each creative to the…
AI and work; evidence; fears; and what we can say now
Systems are becoming more capable each month; they draft; reason; and create on demand; public anxiety rises in parallel; yet labour market indicators do not…
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Awe; literacy; and AI adoption; designing for wonder while protecting judgement
Lower technical literacy often predicts greater enthusiasm for artificial intelligence; novelty and speed elicit awe; awe lowers scrutiny; adoption rises. Emerging evidence suggests that people with limited understanding of how systems work are markedly more willing to try them; they are more likely to describe the experience as magical; and they are more comfortable delegating…
28 Sep 2025
A B tests; divergent delivery; and behavioural validity; why platform experiments mislead and how to design for truth
Marketers trust split tests because random assignment promises clean inference; on social platforms that promise is fragile; delivery algorithms quietly match each creative to the audience most likely to respond; treatment arms diverge; what looks like a fair experiment becomes targeted delivery by another name. The behavioural consequence is predictable; teams anchor on apparent winners;…
21 Sep 2025
AI and work; evidence; fears; and what we can say now
Systems are becoming more capable each month; they draft; reason; and create on demand; public anxiety rises in parallel; yet labour market indicators do not show a collapse. Translators are held up as an early casualty; official counts still show year on year growth; customer service automation is announced; firms then restore an option for…
03 Sep 2025
Interjections; anthropomorphism; and customer choice; teaching chatbots to listen
Small conversational cues shape large outcomes; when chatbots use interjections such as oh; wow; aww; users report feeling heard; satisfaction rises; purchase intent follows. Recent experiments show substantial gains in perceived performance and human likeness when interjections are present; even difficult conversations such as denials of returns benefit from warmer tone and perceived listening. The…
19 Aug 2025
Playful provocation; anthropomorphism; and brand attachment; when teasing helps and when it harms
Brands can sound more human when they engage in light teasing; the same device can also tip into hostility when it targets identity or pain. The psychology is intelligible; playful incongruity invites benign violation; anthropomorphism increases perceived warmth; shared laughter reduces social distance; the result is greater willingness to attend; share; and identify with the…
17 Aug 2025
Complaints; anger and sadness; and AI response selection; when to explain; when to empathise
Negative posts do not all carry the same action tendency; anger is high energy and seeks a cause; sadness is low energy and seeks care; public exchanges travel through networks in patterned ways. For AI systems tasked with customer care; the pragmatic rule is simple; explain when the complaint is angry; empathise when the complaint…
09 Aug 2025
