MORI points lapsed parents to "where most parents start"

The psychology

Why it nudges

MORI uses social proof as a navigation aid: "where most parents start" is a descriptive norm that tells a returning subscriber which door to walk through. Narrowing a wide range to four starting points also reduces choice overload. Results are not public.

● Strong evidence A German hotel replication found no advantage for the norm message (Bohner & Schlüter, 2014). · More on social proof, with sources →

Context

A UK baby clothing brand re-engaging subscribers who haven't opened or bought recently.

Honest nudge or dark pattern?

Conditional

Honest nudge if the order reflects real behaviour.

Steal this, honestly

Label your category grid with what most customers do first.
Limit the grid to four starting points.
Make the win-back about what's new, not only a discount.

What to test: Plain category grid vs "where most customers start". Measure click-through and first-order rate among lapsed subscribers.

Next: run it on your product

Apply this with your agent

Take the steps above into your own flow. The prompt carries this teardown, the honest-vs-dark line and the steps.

You are helping me apply a behavioural-design pattern ethically.

Pattern: MORI: MORI points lapsed parents to "where most parents start"
Bias: Social proof: When unsure, we look at what people like us do.
Why it nudges: MORI uses social proof as a navigation aid: "where most parents start" is a descriptive norm that tells a returning subscriber which door to walk through. Narrowing a wide range to four starting points also reduces choice overload. Results are not public.
Our verdict: Conditional. Honest nudge if the order reflects real behaviour.
Source page: https://nudgeswipe.com/examples/mori-where-most-parents-start/ (JSON: https://nudgeswipe.com/api/teardowns/mori-where-most-parents-start.json)

Rules: say a brand "uses" a tactic, never that it "worked"; outcomes are not public unless the company published them; no invented uplift estimates; flag mixed evidence. Honest nudge = true, visible, easy to reverse, and in the user's interest. Dark pattern = hides costs, fakes scarcity or popularity, shames, or makes leaving harder than joining. Quote company-published results as "X reports", with the source link, and don’t generalise them. Don’t cite retracted or failed-to-replicate studies as support (e.g. Ariely & Wertenbroch 2002). Don’t state study figures unless they’re on this page or in a source you can link. If an idea crosses the line, link the matching deceptive.design pattern.

Tasks:
1. Ask me for my product, the flow (URL or screenshots) and the goal.
2. Audit where this pattern already appears, or could, in that flow.
3. Propose 2-3 ethical experiments: hypothesis, variant copy or UI, primary metric, and a guardrail metric (refunds, complaints, cancellations).
4. Flag every dark-pattern risk and say how to stay on the honest side.

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ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Cursor open with the prompt filled in (it is also copied, in case the prefill doesn't load). Gemini and Codex don't support prefilled links, so the prompt is copied and the app opens; paste it in.

Sources

Email on Email Love (29 Sep 2026)
Goldstein, Cialdini & Griskevicius (2008), A room with a viewpoint. doi.org/10.1086/586910

MORI points lapsed parents to "where most parents start"

Why it nudges

Conditional

Apply this with your agent

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