Articles (page 8)
- The Option You Were Never Meant to Buy
The third option on a pricing page is often there to lose. The effect is real, it is narrower than the marketing books say, and the place it works best is exactly where modern shopping happens.
- Why the Big Box Is Not the Cheap One
Bigger is usually cheaper per unit, and usually is not a rule. The quantity surcharge is mostly an artefact of promotions, which is why it keeps happening without anybody deciding to mislead you.
- The Psychology You Learned Didn't Replicate
Psychology audited itself in 2015 and a third of the findings did not come back. The story stops there in most coverage. It is the next decade, and what survived, that tells you how to read a…
- Read the Count Before the Score
Across 1,272 products in 120 categories, average user ratings did not converge with objective quality measures. People weight them heavily anyway, and fail to discount them when the sample is too…
- The £3.95 You Spent to Save £3.95
You add four pounds of something to avoid a four pound delivery charge and feel like you have saved money. The economics of why shops split a price this way is better understood than the psychology…
- Only Two Left in Stock
Scarcity works when it carries a social signal, and which cue works depends on what is being sold. A 1975 cookie jar and a meta-analysis of 131 studies ask different questions about it, and only one…
- Never Show a Fool Your Work Until It Is Complete
The proverb says the danger is the audience. Two literatures say the danger is being seen at all, and being illegible
- What the Crib Actually Decides
The adult attachment questionnaire and the infant laboratory measure have been compared directly, and they do not overlap
- Why Saying It Out Loud Makes It Feel Smaller
Putting a word on a feeling does something, under conditions, and less than the slogan promises. Telling somebody the whole story does something else entirely