You deceived me, googley-eyed stack of money
Joel typically sends out a monthy email with miscellaneous financial links and tips, and this month his email included the following thing that I had never thought about:
"We all see ads all the time about switching our auto insurance. I've always wondered "how can they all say that the average customer who switched is saving $300? They're switching to the ones that were just in that other commercial." The simple answer is that people that don't save money, don't switch :)"Very clever, verrrry clever.
And in other intresting tidbids of information, the consumerist posted a list of 50 different ways that people are influenced. Here are two excerpts from the full article:
On having too many decisions: "When Head & Shoulders brand killed off 11 scents of the shampoo, leaving only 15 on the market, the sales rose 10%."[See Full List]
And of course the classic foot-in-the-door technique: "Asking for small favors changes self-perception, introducing ways for big favors. Researchers asked a group of homeowners to place a large “Drive Carefully” sign on their front lawn. Only 17% agreed. With the second group of homeowners, 76% of people were ok with road traffic people maintaining the sign on their beautiful lawns. What was the difference between two groups? A few weeks earlier group B was asked to display a small non-intrusive window sign asking drivers to slow down. This mental foot-in-the-door technique made homeowners from the group B view themselves as socially responsible and safety-aware, hence a request for a larger favor few weeks later didn’t startle them. "