After Mrs. Perl's fabulous Latte & Learning event Sunday night, I headed over to Target to pick up some school clothes. I tried on a few shirts, and my dad agreed to pay for one of them. The initial price of that one shirt was low, so he was happy to cover my purchase. As we headed to the checkout, I explained that my other shirt was on sale, and he decided to just pay for both of them and cover my total purchase. As we were leaving the store, I pulled a Mrs. Perl realized that what just happened to me was totally one of the psychological phenomena we discussed in class.
As we learned, the low-ball technique is a form of persuasion or sales technique that offers an item or service at a lower price than is to be actually paid in the end. When I initially asked for one shirt, it seemed like a good deal. When I threw in the second one, it didn't seem like a major difference, so my dad just agreed to pay for all of it. So guys, next time you really need some school shirts, try the low-ball technique on your parental authorities. It just might score you an extra shirt from Target. Woohoo!
Wow, Hans. Thanks for the advice- will totes try it out next time I'm shopping for school shirts in Target.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to get to see psychological things in action. I feel like such a snooty psychology student all the time. On Bronfman the other day Mish, one of the teachers, was saying how once they came up with a word for "frustrated" in Hebrew suddenly every Israeli was frustrated and I was thinking- linguistic determinism!!
This kind of thing happened multiple times during the conference.
Being a psychology nerd is a big problem/blessing.
That is awesome and totally true. I always use the low ball tequnieqe on my parents. What I find though is that I use it on my self as well. That is a problem. Because I always go shopping without my parents due to the fact that they live a distance away I always pay for things. What happens all the time is I see a shirt and I like it but then I see that it is on sale and I can get another shirt and together I can get 10% off so it is better for me to get both. When I walk out of the store I have an extra shirt and the store took more of my money. It happens all the time. I really should notice these little tricks a bit more.
ReplyDelete