After recently reading "Poor Charlie's Almanack", I have developed a strong interest in cognitive biases. Actively studying them has made me more aware of their presence in my daily life.

One such example, much to my dismay, was when I found myself bamboozled by a skilled Clear salesman at the airport. This salesman effectively used a set of techniques that targeted my cognitive biases. What concerned me the most was that I observed myself willingly providing my fingerprints, retina scan, and driver's license.

The following is an account of the situation along with the cognitive biases he targeted.

I was going up the electric stairs to enter the security screening line when he stood next to me and said: “do you want to skip the line?”

This was a great hook because it targeted the self-serving tendency. Of course I wanted to skip the line. He appealed to my interest and not my reason.

And the timing was perfect. He asked just as I experienced the peak of the discomfort curve as I saw the long line ahead of me. Almost without thinking, I immediately responded yes.

Immediately after agreeing, he stated “follow me this way”. This framed him as an authority figure which targeted the authority mis-influence tendency. He led me to a clear kiosk strategically placed next to the security screening line and he began the onboarding flow.

He impatiently entered my information into the kiosk and acted very casual when the kiosk asked for my fingerprints, retina and driver's license.

I had already committed to doing it so the inconsistency-avoidance tendency made me stick through it, even when that meant scanning my fingerprints, retina, and entering my driver's license!

The combined effect of the authority mis-influence tendency plus the inconsistency-avoidance tendency made me powerless to handing over my private information to some random person at the airport.

I was so shocked that I had complied with him that immediately after, I acknowledged his masterful work and asked “you are getting commission right”? To which he responded “yes”, with a cheeky smile.

Little did he know we were both influenced by the same tendency.

His bosses incentivized him with commission per user sign up knowing full well the power of the self-serving tendency.