Table of contents
What Is the Pratfall Effect?
The pratfall effect is the psychological principle that a competent person or brand becomes more likeable, not less, after making a small and visible mistake. First identified by researcher Elliot Aronson in 1966, it explains why a minor flaw can boost trust and relatability rather than damaging credibility. For growth marketers, strategically using the pratfall effect can help build stronger connections with your audience.
Why the Pratfall Effect Matters in Marketing
Today’s consumers are sceptical of overly polished brands and flawless personas. Authenticity matters more than ever. By openly acknowledging mistakes or imperfections, you humanise your brand, making it more relatable and trustworthy. This authenticity can significantly increase audience engagement and loyalty.
How to Use the Pratfall Effect in Your Marketing Strategy
Share Real Mistakes and Lessons Learned
Being transparent about past mistakes and the lessons you’ve learned demonstrates honesty and humility. This positions your brand as approachable and trustworthy.
- Example: Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, regularly shares stories about Airbnb’s early struggles and embarrassing moments. This openness creates genuine connections with customers, making Airbnb feel more relatable.
Highlight Imperfections to Build Authenticity
Instead of hiding minor flaws, strategically showcase them. Imperfections make your brand appear genuine and approachable, helping you stand out in crowded markets.
- Example: A content creator openly shares an embarrassing mistake made during a live webinar. Rather than losing credibility, their honesty endears them to the audience, increasing engagement and loyalty.
Practical Tips for Leveraging the Pratfall Effect
Here are some practical guidelines to effectively use the pratfall effect in your marketing:
- Be genuine: Audiences quickly spot forced vulnerability. Share real stories and authentic experiences.
- Balance is key: Occasional mistakes enhance relatability, but frequent errors undermine credibility. Use the pratfall effect sparingly and strategically.
- Align with your brand voice: Ensure the imperfections you share align with your overall brand identity and messaging.
Pratfall Effect vs Related Psychological Principles
The pratfall effect is one of several psychological principles growth marketers use to build trust and shape perception. Here’s how it compares to two related effects already covered on Growth Method:
| Principle | What it does | Best used for |
|---|---|---|
| Pratfall effect | A small, visible mistake makes an already-competent person or brand more likeable and relatable. | Founder stories, brand voice, humanising customer-facing content. |
| Priming | An earlier stimulus unconsciously shapes how someone judges what follows. | Setting expectations before a price, offer, or pitch. |
| Anchoring | The first number or fact encountered becomes the reference point for every judgement after it. | Pricing pages, negotiations, positioning premium tiers. |
Final Thoughts
In today’s marketing environment, authenticity and relatability are essential for building trust and engagement. By strategically harnessing the pratfall effect, you can humanise your brand, deepen audience connections, and drive meaningful growth.
About Growth Method
The pratfall effect only works as a deliberate, tested strategy, not a one-off anecdote - which is exactly the shift we believe marketing needs to make. Growth Method is the agentic marketing platform for B2B teams, built for people and agents to plan strategy, ship campaigns, and learn what works, all in one place.
Here’s how Growth Method supports testing a principle like the pratfall effect in your own marketing:
- Ideation: Turn a hunch like “sharing an authentic setback will increase engagement” into a properly structured hypothesis, aligned to your goals and visible to your whole team.
- Experimentation: Guide the idea through clearly defined stages - building, live, analysing, complete - increasing your experiment velocity as you find out whether it actually worked.
- Reporting: Measure the before-and-after impact against your real data, and share the result with stakeholders automatically.
We are on-track to deliver a 43% increase in inbound leads this year. There is no doubt the adoption of Growth Method is the primary driver behind these results.
Laura Perrott, Colt Technology Services
Get started to test it in your own marketing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pratfall effect?
The pratfall effect is a psychological principle, first identified by researcher Elliot Aronson in 1966, stating that a person or brand who is already seen as competent becomes more likeable after making a small, visible mistake. The blunder humanises them, making them feel more relatable and trustworthy, provided the underlying competence isn’t in doubt.
What is an example of the pratfall effect?
A classic marketing example is a founder or CEO publicly sharing an early business failure or an embarrassing mistake, such as Airbnb’s Brian Chesky discussing the company’s rocky start. The openness makes the brand feel more human and relatable, which increases trust rather than damaging it.
Does the pratfall effect work for everyone?
No. The pratfall effect only strengthens likeability when the person or brand is already perceived as competent. If competence hasn’t been established, an added mistake simply confirms incompetence and damages trust rather than building it.
How is the pratfall effect different from priming?
Priming is when an earlier stimulus unconsciously shapes how someone judges something that follows, such as a high anchor price making a subsequent price feel cheap. The pratfall effect is specifically about how a visible mistake affects perceived likeability and trust in an already-competent person or brand. Both are psychological principles growth marketers can test deliberately.