20 researchers. 36 criteria. Zero guessing.

APPLIED TO: Perception · Stage 01

Kahneman's Nobel-winning research established that human thinking runs on two systems: System One is fast, automatic, and unconscious; System Two is slow and deliberate. Most decisions, including whether to engage with a business, are made by System One before System Two ever gets involved.

APPLIED TO: Trust · Stage 02

Their joint work on Prospect Theory showed people feel the pain of a loss roughly twice as intensely as the pleasure of an equivalent gain — the foundation of loss aversion.

APPLIED TO: Trust · Stage 02

Cialdini's six principles of influence — reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity — document the specific mechanisms that cause people to say yes. Trust signals have to appear before commitment is requested, not after.

APPLIED TO: Decision · Stage 03

Fogg's Behavior Model states that an action only happens when motivation, ability, and a trigger converge at the same moment. Remove any one, and the action doesn't happen, no matter how strong the others are.

APPLIED TO: Perception & Trust · Stages 01-02

Nielsen's research established that people form their expectations from how most websites work, and that breaking those conventions increases mental effort. His reading-pattern research documents exactly where on a page people actually look first.

APPLIED TO: Perception & Decision · Stages 01 & 03

Miller's famous 1956 finding established that working memory reliably holds only around seven items before things start getting dropped. Past that point, decisions get deferred and people disengage.

APPLIED TO: Decision · Stage 03

Iyengar's well-known research on choice overload showed that how options are sequenced and grouped — not just how many exist — determines whether anyone chooses at all.

APPLIED TO: Trust · Stage 02

Thaler's work on nudges and mental accounting showed that small, well-placed changes in how a choice is presented — defaults, framing, structure — can significantly shift behavior without restricting any option.

APPLIED TO: Presentation · Stage 04

Mehrabian's communication-consistency research established that when what's said and how it looks conflict, how it looks wins. Strong claims on a visually inconsistent page get quietly discounted by that inconsistency.

APPLIED TO: Decision · Stage 03

Gigerenzer's research on fast and frugal heuristics shows people rely on simple mental shortcuts to make good-enough decisions quickly, especially under uncertainty.

APPLIED TO: Action · Stage 05

Eyal's Hook Model describes the loop of trigger, action, variable reward, and investment that gives someone a reason to return or take a next step.

APPLIED TO: Perception · Stage 01

Wiseman's research on first impressions found that people form lasting judgments about competence and trustworthiness within a few seconds of first contact.

APPLIED TO: Action · Stage 05

Glasser's Choice Theory holds that people act to satisfy core needs, including a felt sense of control over their own decisions.

APPLIED TO: Presentation · Stage 04

Ekman's research on micro-expressions showed people detect inconsistency between what's said and how it's shown almost instantly, and subconsciously.

APPLIED TO: Presentation · Stage 04

Cooper's goal-directed design principle holds that good design starts from what the visitor is trying to accomplish, not from what the business wants to show off.

APPLIED TO: Perception · Stage 01

Sweller's Cognitive Load Theory shows comprehension breaks down once mental effort exceeds working memory capacity — even when every individual piece of information is accurate.

APPLIED TO: Perception · Stage 01

Bjork's research on desirable difficulties shows some effort aids memory — but effort spent decoding a confusing layout only causes people to give up, not to remember more.

APPLIED TO: Presentation · Stage 04

Norman established the idea of affordances and signifiers — that things should make their correct use obvious through design alone. When a page deviates from expected patterns, it creates friction that erodes trust before a customer can say why.

APPLIED TO: Decision · Stage 03

Weinschenk's applied research translates lab-level behavioral findings into consistent, measurable patterns in how real people act online.

APPLIED TO: Trust & Decision · Stages 02-03

Simonson's research on context-dependent choice, including the compromise effect, shows people rarely judge an option alone — they judge it against whatever else is presented next to it.