I always tell people to make their quizzes about whatever their customers are thinking. But the question is then “what are they thinking about?” And there are two parts to the answer.
1. Practical items related to your business. At any given time, people are thinking about practical problems or goals they want to reach, which your business can help with. These are pretty simple and straightforward.
2. Default social cognition. This is what we’ll focus on today, because Default Social Cognition means that when our minds are “at rest” meaning not actively trying to solve a problem, we think about other people and ourselves. So your quiz needs to address this throughout, since it’s what is on the mind of your quiz takers.
Here’s what we’ve learned over the last 12 years working with customers to create quizzes that have generated over 100 million leads and been viewed more than 1 billion times, with an average conversion rate of 41%.
You must ask people about and tell people about the things they are already thinking about. Otherwise you will get zero engagement. Literally zero. I cannot tell you the number of times people tell me their quizzes aren’t getting any traction, and then I discover that what they talk about in the quiz is what they want their customers to think about because it’s advantageous to the business. But your customers don’t care about that, they care about what they care about, and that’s not going to change.
When you ask people about and talk to people about what they are already thinking about, that’s called Resonance, and it creates a connection between you and the customer where they now feel like you’re helping them rather than just pitching them some stuff.
I want to focus on default social cognition today, because if people generally think about relationships when they are at rest, that’s something to definitely address throughout your quiz. If we think about default social cognition in the context of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, we can see that relationships with ourselves and other people basically line up with every level of need. Even basic physiological needs are relationship based, because we no longer grow our own food or build our own shelters. We rely on other people to do those things. So you have to be connected and live in harmony with other humans to live in our world. That’s why our brains are so hard wired to think about relationships all the time.
Ask Your Customers About Their People
Now the overlap between default social cognition and quiz content. Let’s run through the ways they can coexist. First one is to ask customers about their people. Ask them about their friends, family, coworkers, themselves. If your quiz takers are thinking about themselves and their people all the time, ask them about themselves and their people. But importantly, keep it in context of your quiz topic. The example here from The Car Mom, asks about family needs as it relates to cars, because it’s a quiz about which care you should buy. If this question was just generally about family and super generic, it wouldn’t be appealing to the quiz taker because they would see it as a waste of time since this is a quiz about cars. But since it ties into Default Social Cognition and it’s relevant to the topic of the quiz, it’s perfect.
Ask Your Customers About Their Relationships
This next example is from a NASA quiz about your role on an Artemis Mission. The quiz is put in context of the other roles on the mission, and asks you how you like to relate to people, what type or responsibilities you enjoy and don’t enjoy, and how you want to be seen. These are all important elements of social cohesion and group dynamics, and part of the Default Social Cognition that occupies the human brain a large percentage of the time. By asking about these aspects of relationship, you are tapping into their existing thought processes and creating resonance.
Show People How they Fit In
An important part of social dynamics is “how do I fit in?” what’s my role in society? am I needed? This is something the human brain mulls over all the time. If you can help people find good answers to this question, it will align with what they are already thinking about. In order to actually be helpful with this, you’ll need to ask relevant questions within your quiz. Salary Transparent Street does a great job with this in their Salary Quiz. They help people understand if they are being underpaid, but the framing is in context to your peers. People always want to know how we fit in, and this exemplifies how that can be implemented to make people feel seen, heard, and like they have an answer to where they fit in.
Show People How They Stand Out
Just like we have a need to fit in, we also have a need to stand out. People need to know how they are different, unique, special, in order to feel confident in their ability to be part of a group. The example below from Common Era’s Goddess Quiz shows this well. They tell you which Goddess you are and what makes you unique. It focuses on individuality, which is part of your relationship to self, and one of the things people think about all the time during Default Social Cognition.
Let People Express Themselves
A really important aspect of relational thinking is the ability to think thoughts without judgment. Without that, we cannot process through how we feel. Quizzes are unsurprisingly a great way to let people do this. People say they’re more honest when answering quiz questions than they are in real life, because there isn’t the pressure of posturing for others. The example here from Advice with Erin’s Career Type Quiz does a really great job of letting people express themselves by asking people what they actually care about when it comes to their jobs.
If you can successfully align yourself with the default social cognition of your quiz takers, keep the content relevant to the topic they are thinking about, and ask/tell in a genuine way, you will create resonance with your quiz takers. If you align in this way, your quiz will connect with people, because it jumps on the same wavelength they are already on. From there, you can slowly architect decisions together because now you’re part of their team. Do this right and your quiz will be more successful.