Why you buy what you buy
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We lift the curtain on how everyone from toothpaste brands to the United Nations is using science to influence your choices in ways you’re probably not aware of. Behavioural science has even made its way into TV drama.
How does it work? And why is it so effective?
If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk
Presented and produced by Rowan Bridge
Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.
Each episode is a 17-minute deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.
Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, why bond markets are so powerful, China's property bubble, and Gen Z's experience of the current job market.
We also speak to some of the world's most influential business leaders. These interviews include the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and the billionaire founder of Epic Systems, one of the world's largest medical record software providers, Judy Faulkner.
(Picture: The hand of a woman about to cause a chain reaction by pushing over a domino. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.0 | Hello, I'm Rowan Bridge and this is Business Daily from the BBC World Service. Today, I'll be |
| 0:14.0 | drawing back the curtains to show how everyone from toothpaste brands to the United Nations |
| 0:18.8 | are using science to influence your choices and |
| 0:22.0 | ways you're probably not even aware of. |
| 0:24.3 | The authority bias is the tendency we have to align our opinions or our behaviours with someone |
| 0:30.1 | we see as an authority or an expert on something. |
| 0:33.7 | And some businesses can draw on this through things like endorsements, |
| 0:41.1 | you know, dentists recommending toothpaste, athletes endorsing sportswear. |
| 0:43.1 | I know my patients are going to come back happier. |
| 0:44.7 | And for me, that's everything as a dentist. |
| 0:48.5 | That's all coming up on Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:52.0 | Good morning. Can I grab your last name, please? |
| 0:53.9 | It's calm. It's that one. Welcome to Nudgestock, marketing giant Ogilvy's annual powwow about behavioural science run by their consulting business. |
| 1:02.3 | You just want to work straight through that little alley there and then on the right is the main hall with all the talks. |
| 1:07.2 | 500 people have paid the equivalent of more than $650 to be here. |
| 1:12.3 | All so they can better understand how human psychology can help them and their companies. |
| 1:17.4 | Hello everyone. |
| 1:19.1 | Welcome to Nutstock 2025. |
| 1:22.9 | The title of the events are nod to the 1960s music festival Woodstock, |
| 1:27.4 | and it's been described as |
| 1:28.7 | Glastonbury for nerds. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.