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1,042 entries declassified
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Decisions 0
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Platforms 0
Habit 0
Negotiation 0
Pricing 3
Incentives 1
Signals 1
Statistics 4
Scarcity 3
Brand 0
Framing 0
Narrative 0
Naming 0
Rhetoric 0
Rewards 0
Progress 0
Competition 0
Engagement 0
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12 / 12
No visual on file
Price Psychology
Entry #0354
Removing a five-pound delivery fee converts better than taking five pounds off the item. The two are arithmetically identical and psychologically separate.
The hidden part
#0354
A fee is a loss with no matching gain. Folding it into the price removes the loss without changing the total.
Reveal the hidden insight of The reason free shipping outperforms an equal discount
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No visual on file
Price Psychology
Entry #0352
Three tiers on a pricing page: cheap, middle, expensive. The expensive one is not there to be chosen. It is there to make the middle one look like the sensible option.
The hidden part
#0352
Value is judged by comparison, not absolutely. The tier nobody buys is the one that decides what everyone else buys.
Reveal the hidden insight of The reason a decoy tier makes the middle look reasonable
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No visual on file
Market Signals
Entry #0402
Part of a qualification’s value comes from what finishing it proves about the person, rather than from what the person learned inside it.
The hidden part
#0402
A credential can be worth paying for even where the teaching is not, provided it is hard to obtain.
Reveal the hidden insight of The reason a degree signals more than it teaches
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No visual on file
Incentive Design
Entry #0376
Adding money to a voluntary act can reduce how often it is performed, because the payment replaces the reason people were doing it at all.
The hidden part
#0376
A payment does not only add a motive. It can delete the one that was already there.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why paying for blood donations reduced supply
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No visual on file
Price Psychology
Entry #0351
Prices ending in nine still outsell round neighbours, and the reason is not that shoppers are fooled about the total but how the number is read.
The hidden part
#0351
A price is read left to right and encoded before it is finished, so the first digit does most of the work.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why nine at the end of a price still works
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No visual on file
Statistical Illusions
Entry #0441
Dividing by population removes size from a comparison. Since size drives most totals, the ranking that survives is often the opposite of the original.
The hidden part
#0441
A total measures magnitude and a rate measures intensity. Which one is published decides most of the ranking.
Reveal the hidden insight of The reason per capita reverses many rankings
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No visual on file
Statistical Illusions
Entry #0440
A measure requires a definition, and once the measure is consequential the definition becomes something to be managed rather than merely applied.
The hidden part
#0440
A number is a definition applied to the world. Make the number consequential and the definition becomes the thing under negotiation.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why counting something changes what gets counted
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No visual on file
Statistical Illusions
Entry #0439
A single number implies a precision the forecast does not have. The width of the interval is the part that says how much the forecast actually knows.
The hidden part
#0439
Two forecasts with the same midpoint and different widths are different forecasts. Only one of those numbers usually survives.
Reveal the hidden insight of The reason a forecast range matters more than its midpoint
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No visual on file
Statistical Illusions
Entry #0438
A mean is pulled by every extreme value in the set. A median is not, so for skewed quantities it describes the ordinary case far more closely.
The hidden part
#0438
A mean answers a question about the total. For a skewed quantity, only the median approximates the ordinary case.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why the median rent tells you more than the average
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No visual on file
Scarcity & Queues
Entry #0467
A lottery gives everyone the same chance and no way to express how much they need the thing. A price does the reverse, and each ignores what the other records.
The hidden part
#0467
Every allocation rule declares which claims count. A lottery says all equally; a price says according to capacity to pay.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why a raffle allocates differently than a price
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No visual on file
Scarcity & Queues
Entry #0466
A queue does not distribute a good neutrally. It charges in time, so it selects the people for whom time is the cheapest thing to spend.
The hidden part
#0466
A queue charges in time. It allocates to those with the least valuable hours, not to those with the greatest need.
Reveal the hidden insight of The reason first come first served changes who arrives
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No visual on file
Scarcity & Queues
Entry #0464
A longer window looks like more protection for the buyer. It is also more time in which the item stops being a purchase and becomes a possession.
The hidden part
#0464
A return window is not only time to decide. It is time in which the item stops being a candidate and becomes yours.
Reveal the hidden insight of The reason a return window changes the decision to keep
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