Friday, June 27, 2014

Consumer Product Testing



I was asked to test out the new Schick Hydro 5 Groomer.  I think I am a good test case.  Not just because I have consumer product evaluation experience in my HF life, but I also shave very irregularly.  Sometimes I have one day of growth, and sometimes five.  I also have kind of a bony face that challenges a lot of the razors I use.  If the Schick can handle my face and habits, it has promise. 

I also plan to follow up with a blog about whether the fact that they sent me one for free has an unconscious influence on my review.  You wouldn’t think that a couple of bucks saved on a razor would make a difference, but the unconscious part makes it more powerful than you might otherwise expect.  There is also the endowment effect since now it is “my” razor.  If a razor can influence me, it adds evidence that when politicians assert that lobbying and campaign money doesn’t influence them is complete BS.  They might legitimately think it doesn’t (sometimes), but there are many studies with strong evidence that it does anyway.  I want to point my intuition, introspection, and metacognition at the influence and see what it feels like.  I doubt I will be lobbied anytime soon (except maybe by my students groveling for grades, but they don’t offer Caribbean speaking engagements), so this might be the closest I get.  

 Stay tuned.

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