![Testing the Presenter’s Paradox – Do People Really Average (Not Sum) Object Values? [Original Research]](https://cxl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DSL-w-freebie-320x160.jpg)
This study examines people’s tendencies to average, not sum, values of items in a list or presented as package deals.
We provide 3 perspectives: 1. we outline what products and lists two academic studies have tested, 2. we duplicate a product and list test with a larger sample size to try and replicate the findings, and 3. we then apply the test to six new products, three experiential products (travel package, hotel night, massage) and three physical products (camera, printer, kitchen mixer).
![Do Review Stars on Google Help Click-Through Rate? [Original Study]](https://cxl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/stars-320x160.jpg)
You know when you search for something on Google sometimes you see review stars next to a search result?
Like here:
Does it work to attract more clicks?
Inspired by our study Which Types of Social Proof Work Best?, we set out to quantify review stars as a way to increase click-through rates (CTR) in search engine results pages.
What kind of improvement in CTR can we get from including review stars in search engine results, if any? What does that mean for application in your business? We attempt to answer these questions with hard data in this CXL Institute study.
Our research was performed in collaboration with Belron® International, a automotive glass replacement and repair group.
![Does the Presenter's Paradox Actually Work in Digital Marketing? [Original Research]](https://cxl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Screen-Shot-2016-10-10-at-9.33.28-AM-320x160.png)
When people weigh choices, the Presenter’s Paradox says they do so by averaging (not adding) the value of each item in a package.
This means if you add more items to a list or more products to a bundle, it could reduce the overall value perception (if the added items are deemed less valuable.
Research on this phenomenon is fairly scarce, though, so we decided to conduct a study through CXL Institute.
We provide 3 perspectives:
![The Effects of Highlighting a "Recommended" Pricing Plan [Original Research]](https://cxl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/7-table-cheapest-first-320x160.jpg)
Previously, CXL Institute published research we did on the order of pricing plans. This study on the effects of highlighting particular pricing plans is a continuation of that study. It has the same experimental design, except here we explicitly test a new variable – highlighting a plan with a different background color.
Similar to the first study, we manipulated the pricing page for a survey tool, SurveyGizmo, to see if there are different patterns of user perception and preference (choice of plan) for various layout designs (price plan order) when one particular plan is highlighted.
How do you order your pricing page: Cheap-to-expensive? Expensive-to-cheap? Randomly?
This study, conducted through CXL Institute, is the first of a multi-part pricing page study providing data on how people consume pricing plans depending on the plan’s layout design.
For this first study, we manipulated the pricing page for a survey tool, SurveyGizmo, to see if there are different patterns of user perception and preference (choice of plan) for various layout designs.
![Which Type of Voice Actor Should You Use for Your Explainer Video? [Original Research]](https://cxl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Capture-320x160.jpg)
When designing the landing page for CXL Institute, we conducted an experiment regarding our explainer video.
We wanted to find out how “trustworthy” and “attractive” different voices were perceived. In this CXL Institute study, we tested four different voices, which differed by gender and whether they were professional voice actors or not.
Question is, did it make a different in how people perceived our video content? Yes, and the results were somewhat surprising.
![Which Types of Social Proof Work Best? [Original Research]](https://cxl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/socialproofpic-1-320x160.jpg)
When shopping online, you can’t hold the product, test it out, or talk to a salesperson about how different brands compare to one another. For these scenarios, social proof is frequently used to guide shoppers towards the best product choice.
Which brings us to the real question: Which social proof techniques are most effective? Are some of them totally ineffective?
This study from CXL Institute explores how different forms of social proof are perceived (with eye-tracking), and then how they are recalled (with post-task survey questions).