What’s funny is that it works even when people know the initial price is bullshit.
A study at MIT had people participate in a silent auction. They were asked to list the last two digits of their social security number and then asked if they would be willing to pay that many dollars for each item before placing their bid.
On average, people with higher SSN digits bid more.
That’s funny, whenever people do that, I just assume they wouldn’t sell without making a profit. And unless it’s immediately valuable to me, I don’t buy.
Exactly. And if for some reason they truly were selling it for less than it was worth (doubt), there’s only two assumptions I’d have:
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There is something wrong with it, which is why it’s being discounted.
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The product is unappealing, they produced way more than there was demand for, and it should probably be worth even less.
I don’t like approaching economics with the idea of “everything is a scam”, but capitalism makes it so that people charge whatever they think they can get away with. Everyone selling you something is trying to maximize the amount of value they can extract from you, and so there is always some angle being worked. Hence why one must always question what it is they aren’t saying.
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Is that how like when the police murder someone then the media rushes to show stories where police help baby duckies cross the road ?
Is anchoring like that ?
Fuck that’s clever. I’m gonna claim to incorporate it into everyday life from now on, then forget about it until someone brings it up again!
This trick used to be €200.
But you can have it now for €20.
