The Zeigarnik Effect: How Brands Keep You Interested and Coming Back

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The Zeigarnik effect is a cognitive bias that refers to the phenomenon where people tend to remember incomplete or interrupted tasks better than completed ones. Soviet-Lithuanian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik first observed this in 1927 when she noticed that waiters in a restaurant had better recall of unfinished orders than completed ones.

The Secret Strategies of Marketing: How Brands Use Cognitive Biases to Win Your Wallet

Here are a few examples of how the Zeigarnik effect can manifest in everyday life:

Zeigarnik Effect and Memory —

1. A person starts reading a book but doesn’t finish it. They may find that they can remember more details about the story and characters than if they had finished reading the book.
2. A person begins a puzzle but doesn’t complete it. They may find that they can remember where certain pieces belong, even if they haven’t worked on the puzzle in a while.
3. A person starts working on a project but gets interrupted. They may find that they can remember what they were working on and where they left off better than if they had…