11–20 of 27 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the feedback! It would be great if you could post this on http://coglode.com/gems/hedonic-adaptation to spark some conversation.
I didn't realize that each item in your list linked to another page with more elaboration until I saw your previous comment.
Round Price Preference Yes, please, let's stop the 99.99 crap. And with sales tax the point is moot Even better, let's not have more than 3 significant digits on prices (ok, maybe 4 or 5 for high value items)
People stopped buying.
He was fired.
The idea that if you recognize one of those fallacies at play, it's the dominant fallacy and hence correcting it will lead to the predicted results.
Reality is a complicated mesh of variables, and we judge it with a complicated mesh of heuristics.
Studying the fallacies is good, but don't think you suddenly have an explanation & solution for all the problems you see around yourself.
The fallacy recognition fallacy: The idea that if you recognize one of those fallacies at play, it's the dominant fallacy and hence correcting it will lead to the predicted results. Reality is a complicated mesh of variables, and we judge it with a complicated mesh of heuristics. Studying the fallacies is good, but don't think you suddenly have an explanation & solution for all the problems you see around yourself.
This is fun stuff. I'd love to read more of them in the future, but there's no feed link. Has RSS really died? I'm often surprised by how many sites skip including these now.
Round Price Preference Yes, please, let's stop the 99.99 crap. And with sales tax the point is moot Even better, let's not have more than 3 significant digits on prices (ok, maybe 4 or 5 for high value items)
Ron Johnson thought that, so removed the cheap pricing tricks from JCPenney. People stopped buying. He was fired.
Round Price Preference Yes, please, let's stop the 99.99 crap. And with sales tax the point is moot Even better, let's not have more than 3 significant digits on prices (ok, maybe 4 or 5 for high value items)
Ron Johnson thought that, so removed the cheap pricing tricks from JCPenney. People stopped buying. He was fired.
I remember hearing of one study (I read this in Priceless by William Poundstone, good book), that compared the exact same product sold at $44, $39 and $34 through a split-tested mail order catalogue. Obviously, the $39 outsold the $44 as it was cheaper - but bizarrely, the $39 also outsold the $34.
There is a very weird power to the number 9 in pricing, I wouldn't underestimate it. If anyone wants further reading, I suggest googling "Charm Prices".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Jonathan Haidt touches on this in "The Happiness Hypothesis", though not specifically applying it to TV watching. There's the standard issue of measuring happiness, sure, since it's hard to find other than a self-reported subjective measurement for it. But in general, the principle that what matters most to keep us happy is a steady "upwards trajectory" where things keeps getting somewhat better is getting quite dece…
Well, I suppose there is a presumption of an enjoyable TV program to start with. I'd overlooked that. I suppose it's quite possible (and maybe even common) to craft TV that is so awful that even the commercials serve to improve the experience (some celebrity game shows come to mind, not to mention certain news outlets...) But if we assume TV that people have elected to watch in the first place, what do you think of t…
To take the lottery example: How many people do you think would opt for $1m today vs. $10000 this year, $12000 the following year, $14000 the year after, and so on, until they'd have received, say, $3m? Pretty much all research into both lottery winners and the way we judge rewards now vs. later indicates that most of us would likely opt for the $1m now, yet be less happy for it over time vs. an option where we can look forward to steadily increasing rewards over a long period of time.
I'd be willing to be that you could show people data on how the options would likely affect their happiness, and the majority of people would still opt for the $1m now, and go out and start spending.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ron Johnson thought that, so removed the cheap pricing tricks from JCPenney. People stopped buying. He was fired.
Yeah I was going to say that the round pricing rule here is one of the more controversial ones. It's been proven time and time again that prices set at .99 will outsell their rounded competition by quite a way. It doesn't even have to be cents or pennies, something priced at $49 will outsell the one at $50. I remember hearing of one study (I read this in Priceless by William Poundstone, good book), that compared the…