Bye-Now Effect

What is the Bye-Now Effect?

“Bye-now effect” is a popular label for a phonological priming finding involving the English homophones “bye” and “buy.”

Davis and Herr (2014) studied whether exposure to a word could activate concepts associated with a different word that sounds the same. Their experiments found effects consistent with this account when reduced cognitive resources made suppression of the irrelevant meaning less effective.

This is not a ready-made advertising trick. The finding depends on shared sound and the processing conditions. It does not establish that adding “bye now” to an advertisement increases purchases.