The folks who run New York’s mass transit have a massive money problem. People skip over subway turnstiles and sneak onto buses to avoid fares. In 2022, the avoidance cost the MTA $315M. Clearly, this is a job for…media, marketing, and marketing psychology.
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You read enough case studies and you begin to believe that marketing has superpowers. It can make people do things they don’t want to do. Buy things they don’t want to buy. Make people believe unbelievable things. It can learn our behaviors and influence them.
In 1957, thousands of people in an experimental technology behavior altering media at a movie theater in Fort Lee, New Jersey study drank more Coke. These subliminal ads got people to eat more popcorn. The “eye-blink” technology that inserted messages between frames to influence behavior was so powerful that it expanded to TV. People watching WTWO in Bangor, Maine said they bought tired for cars they didn’t own. That’s when Congress banned subliminal advertising.
In 2021, Neuroscience News and Research wrote that subliminal marketing works based on “new research from Valentin Dragoi’s lab at the University of Texas at Houston.” Happily, it can’t brainwash us. Whew.
In 2022, fare avoidance was on the rise. The MTA was losing money. A third of bus riders weren’t paying to ride. The was up 25% from the year before. There are five boroughs in NYC – Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx, and Queens. Half the riders in the Bronx weren’t paying.
The government did what governments do. In July 2023, they made certain bus routes — free. New York State Senator, Michael Gianaris was proud he found the budget to make this work. You see, New York “subsidizes” other things that are good for people like fire and police. Transit should be free too. The new pricing model worked! Ridership was up nearly 20% on free routes. “In just the first few months of this new program, New Yorkers have already built it into their lives. Taking these free buses to work, learn, and worship has become the norm for people along these routes.”
OK, that whole free thing didn’t work. The state couldn’t find more budget money to keep the program going. So, no more free rides.
We know one thing. Turnstiles deter free riders. Fare evasion is 4x higher when you can board a bus from middle doors nowhere near a driver than when you have to jump a turnstile getting on a subway.
The MTA set up a blue-ribbon commission to look at things like this. They recommend making it easier to pay fares — like with a phone or app; putting agents on certain buses to inform riders. Down the road, they may issues summons. They’re going to re-gear subway turnstiles to make them harder to hop.
Everything short of enforcing people to pay for things has failed. 900,000 people skip paying fares every day. The MTA will lose $800M this year on fare evasion. Help! They must have read marketing’s press clippings. The MTA is looking for a “Behaviorist.” An expert who can conduct research on the motivations and behavioral decisions that lead people to want free stuff. It’s a million-dollar job.
The plan is to get people to feel good about paying so the system works better for everyone. The union who represents the folks who drive buses sees this as a bunch of hooey. “I don’t know how that’s gonna help a person who can’t pay the fare – telling them to feel good…”
But he’s at odds with medical science. IBD, short for inflammatory bowel disease, affects 3.1 million Americans. The disease costs the healthcare system more than $30B per year.
Fortunately for patients with IBD, they have Dr. Laurie Keefer. She’s a Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her work has been funded by the National Institute of Health for years. Last week, she received a $1.5M grant from The Helmsley Charitable Trust for her work on coping. Her academic skills include psychometrics and questionnaire design. She has clinical expertise in cognitive-behavior therapy and medical hypnosis. She doesn’t address the disease. She works tirelessly to make people feel good about their disease.
Oh, the story from Neuroscience News and Research about Dr. Valentin Dragoi’s lab… he studies monkeys. The 1950s era movie ads. Faked. When asked about it, the pioneer, James Vicary, said, he concocted his experiment as a gimmick to attract customers to his failing marketing business.
Press clippings get people to buy ads.
Is it price or promotion that changes our behavior? A bonus read so you can decide for yourself.
One hundred subjects exposed to slick ads for a non-existent popcorn brand believed that they had tried the popcorn and liked it. The ad had imprinted and mixed with actual memories. From Wired. Or in a more sciencey form.