the.com/consumer psychology

the science of why your cart has things in it you can't explain to your spouse.

means the study of how people actually decide to buy things, which is rarely the logical process they think it is.

from emerged in the early 1900s as advertisers realized economics alone couldn't explain purchases, then exploded when behavioral economics proved humans are gloriously irrational shoppers, not the rational calculators textbooks assumed.

for instance

williams sonoma bread makeradding a pricier model doubled sales of the cheaper one

costco samplesfree tastes reliably lift sales of the sampled item

amazon one-clickremoved friction so completely it got patented in 1999

de beers diamondsinvented a two months salary rule in 1938 ad copy

the.com/
what’s happening now · the.com · generated