As part of the course Consumer Psychology, the UK-based company 15gifts provided interesting insights into how psychological theories and principles can be applied in practice.

15gifts is specialised in developing decision engines that help consumers choose in online shops. Andrew Brothwell (Product Manager), Matt Kaley-Burton (Product Manager), and Jess Sutcliffe (Product Owner) explained how their engines use machine learning and psychological concepts to recreate real-world sales interactions and provide tailored recommendations. They introduced the students to the most important psychological principles they apply in their decision engines, and demonstrated one of the engines live. After some time for general questions and answers, they presented a current project on providing social proof to users, which was then discussed. The students also got the chance to present their own ideas on how the concept of social proof could be incorporated in the decision engine.