As it turns out, positive expectations allow us to enjoy things more and improve our perception of the world around us. The danger of expecting nothing is that, in the end, it might be all we’ll get.
Thanks to Facebook, of which I both like and dislike, I was presented with an add for Blinkist. Blinkist is a site that promotes learning and personal growth. If your "to-read" list is like mine, I have more books I want to read than I'll ever be able to get through. Blinkist solves this by giving providing subscribers the key ideas and concepts from over a thousand non-fiction books in under 15 minutes in audio or print form. Think of it as Spark notes in a way.
That's how I came across Predictably Irrational. This is not a book I'd normally pick up, but to test how Blinkist works, I thought I'd listen to their audio snippet, then start reading the book to see how the they compare and what is missed by not reading the book. All in all, Blinkist is nice if you want to get the general idea, but obviously reading the book will lend to more incite on what is presented.
Anyway, enough about Blinkist. Now, time for some "bright ideas" I am getting from this book.
Psychology of Marketing
The book is basically about behavioral economics, the way in which humans behave and make decisions. Back in college, I remember talking about the use of psychology in marketing. Everything from the way a store is laid out to the colors on the walls has to do with how we respond and make decisions.
In this book, there were some very revealing details that I never put much thought into. For example, the way we determine whether or not the price for a product is a good deal. Ariely conducted a study in which studetns were to right down the last two digits of their social security number, then they were asked what they would be willing to pay for a number of products. The result? Students whose last two social security digits were higher were willing to pay more for products than students with lower numbers. This is what Ariely referred to as the anchor. And it can be anything really. It could have been the current temperature. It's relativity in pricing, we see a number and use it as a baseline for purchasing decisions. He also talked about first impressions (the first new product to market sets the price, the anchor, by which we compare all other related products).
We also try to compare similar products and base pricing on that. Restaurants will often overprice their most expensive item on the menu so that when you compare it to the second most expensive, the second meal looks like a better deal.
perception of value, in medicine, soft drinks, drugstore cosmetics, or cars, can become real value.
Another interesting thing is how we perceive value. Ariel conducted a study in which students were given pain medication. In one group, students were told the medication was very expensive, and they reported higher percentage of relief than the students who were given the medication and told it was less than a $1. The result: we expect more when we pay more, and sometimes this blinds us to value the more expensive item higher.
All in all, this was a very good book on our buying habits and how we don't really have a rational way in which we make decisions. I highly recommend this book, especially now that we are coming up on the holidays and everybody is out buying stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment