The Choice Factory

The award-winning guide to behavioural science and marketing

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The Choice Factory

By: Richard Shotton

Narrated by: Simon Cole

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£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

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Uncover the psychological shortcuts that shape every decision you make – and learn how to use them in business.

Voted #1 in the BBH World Cup of Advertising Books
Winner of the Sales and Marketing Category at the Business Book Awards

Before you can influence decisions, you need to understand what drives them. The Choice Factory is an essential listen for anyone who wants to learn.

By observing a typical day of decision-making, from trivial food choices to significant work-place moves, behavioural science expert Richard Shotton investigates how our behaviour is shaped by psychological shortcuts. With a clear focus on the marketing potential of knowing what makes us tick, he draws on evidence from academia, real-life ad campaigns and his own original research.

Entertaining and highly accessible, The Choice Factory is made up of 25 short chapters, each addressing a cognitive bias and outlining simple ways to apply it to your own marketing challenges. Shotton interviews some of the smartest and most influential thinkers in advertising, including Rory Sutherland, Lucy Jameson and Mark Earls.

Covering everything from priming to the pratfall effect, charm pricing to the curse of knowledge, with The Choice Factory as your guide it has never been easier to apply the science of behavioural economics to marketing.

'Actionable, memorable and powerful' – Seth Godin, bestselling author of This is Marketing

Richard ShottonSimon ColeHarriman House

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Critic reviews

A guide to your own mind, a roadmap of your blind spots, a toolkit for better advertising. The Choice Factory employs robust behavioral science in an approachable manner to demonstrate how you make and influence decisions. (Faris Yakob, author of Paid Attention)

Actionable, memorable and powerful . . . Shotton has taken the jewels of behavioral economics and made them practical. (Seth Godin, author of All Marketers are Liars)

This book is a Haynes Manual for understanding consumer behaviour. You should buy a copy – and then buy another copy to give to one of the 97% of people in marketing who are too young to remember what a Haynes Manual is. (Rory Sutherland, columnist for The Spectator and Vice Chairman at Ogilvy UK)

A top class guide for those who want to put BE to work, rather than just illuminate their journey to work. (Mark Earls, author of Herd)

Richard delivers a wealth of cases proving the efficacy of working with, rather than against, the grain of human nature. This is catnip for the industry. (Phil Barden, author of Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy)

Most books in this area are academic and dry as dust. If you want to know how research and sociology can impact on real life in the real world, Richard's book will show you – using simple words and examples that real people can understand. (Dave Trott, ex-creative director, weekly columnist in trade journal Campaign and author of Predatory Thinking)

The Choice Factory is a delightful anatomy of the biased brain that will help you understand and influence consumer decisions – including your own (Ian Leslie, author of Born Liars and Curious)

If you're a marketer, understanding what really makes people tick – as opposed to what they might tell you – is vital. This book takes us on an elegant, witty and digestible tour of the 25 main principles of behavioural science. This is a delightful and indispensable read for anyone in marketing, particularly those early in their careers. (Tess Alps, Chair of Thinkbox, the UK's marketing body for commercial broadcasters)

Comprehensive, compelling and immensely practical, The Choice Factory brings the building blocks of behaviour change together in one place. (Richard Huntington, Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi)

In a cacophony of overstatement, Richard Shotton possesses a melodious and balanced voice. In this short but powerful tome you can learn about how marketing actually does influence consumers. Or, for the more prosaic among us, how to get people to re-use towels, buy wine when German Oompah music is playing and select a broadband supplier by mentioning Charing Cross Station. The book also mentions me (all too briefly) which I also find enticing. (Mark Ritson, weekly columnist for Marketing Week and Professor at Melbourne business school)

Most relevant

does exactly what it says on the tin. listened through it once and now planning on a few more times to take notes. Some really good nuggets here especially about web browsers! I'll let you find it in the book!