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How LinkedIn (and Other Products) Play With Our Minds: The Psychology Behind The Nudges
The Science of Attention: A Playbook for Engagement
Have you ever received one of those emails from LinkedIn that says “X people viewed your profile this week”? Of course, you have! If you are registered there and your profile is active…
At first glance, it seems like an innocuous notification, but peel back the layers, and you’ll find a master class in psychological design. These emails aren’t just updates, they’re carefully crafted nudges designed to get you to log back in.
And of course we’ll break it down!
The Power of Social Proof: “Look at You, Rockstar!”
One of the most obvious psychological principles at play here is social proof. By highlighting the number of people who have viewed your profile, LinkedIn is essentially saying, “Hey, you’re popular! People care about you!”. Which is not true at all, but you want to feel like it is that way.
It taps into our innate need for validation. We want to feel seen, appreciated, and valued. LinkedIn designers know this, and they use it to make a connection between your self-esteem and your activity on their platform.
Think of it as a tiny ego boost: if 93 people are looking at your profile, or your post got more than 700 hundreds impressions, you must be doing something right. And you should come back and keep doing it, even if it’s just browsing, liking, or commenting on posts with a template: “Oh, this is so exciting!”.
The Curiosity Gap: “Guess Who?”
Here’s where LinkedIn turns up the psychological heat. They tell you how many people have viewed your profile, but not who those people are and when exactly they looked at your page. Why is that? Because it creates a curiosity gap, a phenomenon explained in…
