BE Prompting Technique: Behavioral Economics Meets AI (Experiment)

Discover the BE Prompting Technique, blending behavioral economics with AI for smarter, more human-centric LLM prompts.

Apr 11, 2024

A few weeks ago, I underwent prompt engineering training, where I covered some of the most popular prompting techniques. One of these was the idea of emotional prompting, where you can add something like "Believe in yourself" or "This is very important for my career" to the end of your prompt. This concept, along with a few discussions, sparked a new idea for me. I asked myself: What if we try to apply the main principles of behavioral economics when designing prompts, and how would this affect the output?

Main Concept

The BE Prompting Technique leverages insights from behavioral economics to inform the way we craft prompts for LLMs. By applying human decision-making biases and tendencies, we can guide LLMs to produce outputs that have higher quality and resonate more deeply with human psychology, ultimately driving better engagement and more effective LLMs outputs.

Disclaimer: Keep in mind that this is an experiment and all you are going to read below is still theoretical and not fully tested at scale. Think of this more like an idea or concept

10 Economics Principles used in the experiment

Goal Gradient Theory: This idea suggests that the closer people feel they are to achieving a goal, the harder they'll work to reach it. It's like sprinting the last stretch of a race because you can see the finish line.
Gamification: This principle is about making tasks feel like games. People enjoy playing games and can be motivated by game-like rewards, such as points, even if they don't have physical value.
Herding: This concept highlights that people often follow what others are doing. If everyone is doing something, an individual is more likely to do it too, thinking it must be the right choice.
Power of Free: Everyone loves free stuff. Something offered for free is usually more attractive than something that costs, even if it's cheap.
Reciprocity: When someone does something nice for us, we often feel a need to do something nice in return. This principle is about the mutual exchange of benefits.
Procrastination: This is the tendency to delay doing something until the last moment. People often wait until there's a sense of urgency before they act.
Relativity: We evaluate options by comparing them with others available. Our choices are influenced by these comparisons, rather than just by the individual merits of an option.
Tunneling: When faced with an urgent situation, it becomes the only thing we can focus on. All our attention and efforts are directed towards dealing with this emergency.
Social Norms: Our decisions can be influenced by what we see others around us doing. If a behavior is considered normal or common, we're more likely to engage in it.
Endowment Effect: Once we own something, we start to value it more highly than before. We're likely to want more to give it up than we would pay to acquire it.