Zotgeist

Musings of the mind in the strawberry fields of law, economics, and berries

Referencing in a Sale

Published on 12/09/07
by zot

Just a quick post about referencing effects. It turns out we think a sale is a bigger discount if the right-most digit is low instead of high. You can read about it on Science Daily. It’s probably a case of a referencing bias. Since products are priced at a flat amount ($200) or just below ($199), we see low numbers and assume they are a discount from the higher value.

It’s a great example of our implicit references and how they can affect our decision making. I wonder if marketers will start pricing sale items at $191 instead of $189.

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