Tag: psychology
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Group discussions lead to more extreme views.
You might think that a group discussion would temper people’s opinions as they hear different viewpoints and arguments from all sides. However, the opposite is very often true. Group discussions commonly lead to more extreme views. Most groups are groups for a reason. They have a common purpose or goal, and therefore often have views…
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“Free” is a powerful word.
As I have written before, we tend to equate quality with price: you get what you pay for. However, the idea of getting something for free can override any considerations of quality. Most transactions have an up-side and a down-side. The up-side of buying something is that you receive a product that you desired. The…
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Expensive wine does taste better.
When wine lovers drink wine they believe to be expensive, blood oxygen increases in the area of the brain concerned with feeling pleasure. This was shown in research by Plassman et al in 2008. The wine actually tastes better to them just because they think it is expensive and therefore believe it is good quality.…
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Just the thought of money makes us unsociable
Money makes us unsociable Just the thought of money makes us more insular, more unsociable, and makes us want to be more independent. Kathleen Vohs et al conducted various experiments to study the way people’s behaviour changes when they have money on their minds. One of my favourites had participants fill out a form in…
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You are hopeless at noticing change.
You are hopeless at noticing change In 1998 Simons and Levin performed an experiment to show just how bad people are at noticing change. A person with a map would approach someone, acting lost, and ask them how to get to somewhere. Whilst that person (an inadvertent participant in the experiment) tried to describe the…
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“I wish they would just get on with Brexit”: an example of the sunk cost fallacy?
In case you haven’t noticed, there is a little thing called Brexit being discussed a bit these days. I have heard several politicians claiming that people tell them they wish the politicians would just get on with it. It is suggested that now we have come this far down the path, we might as well…
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Marketers love you to compare.
Marketers love you to compare. Imagine you have invented a new gadget and put it into the shops at $279. As it is a completely new product, there is nothing to compare it with. How can anyone judge whether that is a good price or not? The answer is, they cannot. This is the problem…
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You just cannot help comparing.
You just cannot help comparing. If you want to judge a quality such as its attractiveness, the only way to do it is by comparison. You find something similar and decide which is the most attractive. Unless you have a clear-cut, objective way of measuring what you have to judge, you simply have to seek…
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You should always name your price first.
You should always name your price first Imagine you are in a market in China and see something you like. You ask what the price is and the lady gives you a figure which seems a little steep to you. In a market, you can be sure the price she has told you is way…
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Judges should not play with dice
Judges, if they were allowed to play with dice, could be influenced by those dice when deciding on prison terms. I will explain how, but first I want to ask you a question: Do you think there are more or fewer than 15 countries in Africa? Think about it for a moment. More than 15…