If this post’s title gave you flashbacks to Psychology 101, you probably have a lot of the same fragmented memories I do: Pavlov’s dog, the Bobo doll, prison guards, Little Albert, people getting shocked—the list of bizarre and ethically questionable experiments goes on. I often think about how these and countless other school memorizations are just taking up valuable real estate in my brain. But, turns out, they apply to marketing. A lot.

When writing for different audiences lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about bias blind spots. We tend to believe that while everyone else may give in to cognitive biases, we (ourselves) don’t.

Me, biased? Never.

Breaking news: We all have our own internalized biases that affect our purchasing behaviors. Purchasing biases and brand loyalty are a lot like love: You can’t always explain why you keep coming back to something, you just do. Is there a logical reason I spend more than I should on a certain brand of coffee when I could just make it myself at home? Is there a reason I always order black iced coffee, even in January? And is there a reason I go to the same coffee drive-thru location because I’m convinced the service is faster, even though it really isn’t? No. There’s no reason. Other than the fact that my brain is a tiny, malleable pile of mush that is susceptible to every marketing, branding, and product experience bias it’s ever experienced over my lifespan.

A little quasi-academic metacognition can help us unpack purchasing biases to make us better marketers and writers. Here are a few cognitive biases I keep in my back pocket when trying to appeal to a target audience (and when trying to understand my own objectively baseless purchasing behavior):

1. Picture superiority effect: This one is officewide here at Redhead. Concepts that people learn via words paired with pictures or design are more easily and frequently recalled than written words alone. Even as adults, we like our books with pictures.

2. Confirmation bias: I am the most indecisive person I know. (Maybe. I’m not sure.) So  before making most big purchases, I’ll send a link in multiple group chats with something like, “Should I buy wall paint in Imperial Gray or Rojo Dust Pink?” My friends really don’t care, but they respond with an opinion because they are just that nice. But we all know if they say gray, I’ll subconsciously choose not to listen. Because secretly, deep down, I am 5 years old and want pink. Whether we like it or not, consumers filter information that confirms their own perceptions. This makes changing prospective customers’ minds difficult, so marketers need to jump through some extra hoops to disrupt confirmed perceptions. But if we’re trying to reaffirm an existing customer’s opinion, sometimes all they need is that nudge to remind them, “Yes, absolutely, get the pink one.”

3. The von Restorff effect: This one seems pretty simple, but is easier said than addressed: People remember things that stand out. It probably stems back to some evolutionary advantage, and how humans needed to recall stimuli that were different in order to adapt to their surroundings. Today, we can leverage this by taking risks with our content and design to make people remember our brands. No matter what industry you’re in, chances are, the marketplace is crowded. You’ve got to take risks to stand out.

4. Recency and primary effects: Items near the end of a sequence are easiest to recall immediately, while those at the beginning of a sequence are most memorable after time has passed. So I’m placing bets that, of the biases on this list, you’ll remember this one at first, but you’ll forget it over time. Put the most important content at the top of any piece.

When we get down to it, effective marketing, advertising, and public relations aim to do one of two things: either reaffirm the audience’s pre-existing opinion or change their minds. Everyone’s brain is a little biased, and creators need to keep these biases in check to make their projects successful.