The Attention Shift We asked a behavioural scientist why people buy live. Here's what he said.
Mar 27, 2026
Phil Agnew, behavioural scientist and host of the UK marketing podcast Nudge, explains why attention and simple psychology drive purchases. He discusses curiosity hooks that boost views but not clicks. He covers mere-exposure, distinctiveness, credible scarcity, storytelling vs discounts, and how dynamic social proof can normalise live shopping.
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Why Interrupting The Scroll Rarely Converts
- Interruption-based live commerce fails because social platforms are designed to keep users on-platform, so viewers rarely click through to external purchases.
- Phil Agnew's TikTok test: curiosity hooks gained 4x views and 8x follows but converting viewers off-platform (podcast listens) remained extremely hard.
Phil's TikTok Curiosity Experiment
- Phil ran 40 TikTok videos; curiosity-hooked openers led to 11,000 followers versus ~500 from plain versions.
- Despite 2M views promoting a podcast episode, almost nobody clicked through to listen off-platform.
Build Familiarity With Mere Exposure
- Use mere exposure: publish platform-native content repeatedly to build familiarity so people pick you when they decide to buy.
- Phil recommends distribution across channels (TikTok clips, feeds) as long-term exposure rather than immediate conversion posts.