Psychology of Persuasion: Rule of Scarcity
Sun Jun 19 21:04:49 2011
How our mental shortcuts guide our decisions, and how they might be exploited by malicious individuals and companies.
What would cause the participants of an experiment to rate higher the identical cookies in one jar than in the other? What would make people abhor the new law? What would make people suddenly value a certain detergent more, and believe it cleans better than the other brand? What would make the item you are selling more desirable?
The answer to all those questions is... scarcity.
Overloaded with information, we create many mental shortcuts that help us to make decisions faster. The mental shortcut responsible for the power of scarcity is based on the fact that we know the things difficult to possess are typically better than those easy to possess; we can often use an item's availability to help us quickly and correctly decide on its quality, without expending too much brain power to evaluate the details.
In addition to that, as opportunities become less available, we lose freedoms; and we hate to lose the freedoms we already have. Looking back at virtually any revolution in history: the trigger is often a freedom given to people for a short time, but then taken back.
The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decision making. In fact, people seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value. For instance, homeowners told how much money they could lose from inadequate insulation are more likely to insulate their homes than those told how much money they could save.
Not many adhered to the new law in Kennesaw, Georgia, where every adult resident was required to own a gun and ammunition, under the penalty of six months in jail and a two-hundred-dollar fine. The law restricted an important, long-standing freedom, to which many citizens felt entitled.
Dade County, Florida, imposed an anti-phosphate ordinance prohibiting the use and possession of laundry or cleaning products containing phosphates. Losing one of their freedoms, people turned to smuggling; families were reported to boast of twenty-year supplies of phosphate cleaners. Moreover, compared to people not affected by the ordinance, the residents rated phosphate cleaners as gentler, more effective in cold water, better whiteners and fresheners, and more powerful on stains. Scarcity made people perceive the products as of higher quality.
An interesting experiment was done by psychologist Stephen Worchel. Participants were given two jars with identical cookies and were asked to rate them. If there were two cookies in one jar, and ten in the other, the scarce cookies were rated as more desirable to eat in the future, more attractive as a consumer item, and more costly. The ratings were even higher if the participants were first given the jar with ten cookies with the numbers reduced to two before they took the bite, with an excuse that the experimenter made a mistake. To boost the ratings even more, the reason for scarcity was changed: participants were told the cookies became scarce because of the demand for them. In another study, exclusivity was an extra driving force: the store would buy more beef if they were told that the information about upcoming scarce supply was given exclusively to select few.
The way we perceive scarcity and make decisions based on it explains the overabundance of "limited time offers" and "limited edition" items available for sale. We value things that are scarce more. We value things that are becoming scarce even higher. Higher still we value things that are becoming scarce because others are taking it. And the ultimate value we assign to things that are becoming scarce because of the demand, and there's a limited number of people who know about the scarcity.
Further reading:
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. (ISBN: 978-0-06-124189-5)
Comments
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Tue Aug 23 07:02:55 2011
A million thanks for posting this information.