Copywriting Articles — Atticus Li

Atticus Li

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Copywriting

Articles exploring copywriting through the lens of behavioral science and experimentation. Practical frameworks for growth leaders who measure in revenue, not vanity metrics.

8 articles

behavioral economics May 25, 2026 7 min read

Five Words That Sell: The Behavioral Economics Research That Should Rewrite Your Marketing Copy

Most marketing copy is bad in ways that are research-documented. Present tense beats past tense (Packard, Berger, Boghrati 2023). Variable word sizing beats uniform (Pieters and Wedel 2004). MAYA beats novelty (Raymond Loewy, 1951). Certainty beats hedging (Pezzuti, Leonhardt, Warren 2021). Indirect beats direct (McQuarrie and Phillips 2013). Five peer-reviewed findings that, stacked, will rewrite how you think about every line of copy you ship.

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ab-testing May 1, 2026 5 min read

Copy Intent vs Visual Prominence: Why "Sign Up" Doesn't Mean "Shop"

A CTA fails one of two ways: the user doesn't see it, or they see it and read it as something else. Most teams optimize the first failure. The second is more common, harder to catch, and shows up as healthy click rates with broken conversions.

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choice-architecture Mar 28, 2026 10 min read

Long-Form vs Short-Form Copy: When Length Helps and When It Kills Conversion

The Elaboration Likelihood Model applied to copy length decisions based on product type, price point, and user intent. Why the length debate misses the point entirely.

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copywriting Mar 28, 2026 9 min read

Power Words vs. Clarity: When Emotional Copy Hurts Conversion

The Elaboration Likelihood Model applied to copy: high-involvement users need substance, not sizzle. Why emotional power words backfire when the decision stakes are high.

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behavioral-science Mar 28, 2026 9 min read

Microcopy That Converts: The Psychology of Button Labels, Error Messages, and Helper Text

How word-level decisions in UI copy trigger or suppress action through cognitive fluency, loss framing, and autonomy. The behavioral science behind microcopy that moves conversion metrics.

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behavioral-science Mar 28, 2026 9 min read

Social Proof Copy: Beyond 'Join 10,000+ Customers' — What Actually Persuades

Why specificity, similarity, and narrative social proof outperform generic numbers. The psychology of social proof copy that moves conversion metrics instead of just filling space.

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attentional capture Mar 28, 2026 9 min read

Headlines That Work: The Neuroscience of What Makes People Stop Scrolling

Attentional capture, novelty detection, and the information gap theory applied to headlines. The neural mechanisms that determine whether your headline gets read or ignored.

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behavioral-science Mar 27, 2026 8 min read

The Framing Effect in Error Messages: How Wording Changes User Recovery Rates

Identical error information framed as a loss versus a gain produces dramatically different user behavior, making microcopy one of the most undervalued levers in product design.

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