Side Affects Episode 154 | The Science of Employee Persuasion | Part II

October 17, 2025·37 min·1 clip

The Taylor Swift ticket fiasco proves scarcity creates panic across millions of people.

Part 2 of a three-part series on persuasion science. Host Kenzie McEvely and guest Dave Homan, Chief Marketing Officer with 30+ years experience, explore three Cialdini principles: scarcity (FOMO), authority, and commitment. Using examples from the Concorde jet and Taylor Swift tickets, they explain how deadline anxiety triggers engagement. They provide practical tactics for HR/benefits programs like countdown timers in enrollment emails, while emphasizing that scarcity only works with authentic deadline enforcement—inauthenticity destroys the tactic's effectiveness.

As heard by us

A practical look at how benefits teams can use persuasion to make messages land.

This episode keeps its focus on a plain but useful idea: employee-benefits messaging works better when it is treated as persuasion, not just program detail.

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Why you'd press play

Want a benefits-message episode that shows how authority and trust can move employees to act?

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