Why FREE works

I am reading mow a great book called Pedictably Irrational : The Hidden Forces that shape our decisions by Dan Arieli (http://www.predictablyirrational.com/)

I am fascinated by his research and his effort to explain why we ,people make irrational decisions, we know are not rational but yet, we choose to make them.

As I am reading the book I am constantly looking at my daily actions and events to see what I can find irrational. I want to share with you this one experience that my husband and I shared.

About a week ago, my husband and I took some time off with out our older kids and went to the beach to relax and rejuvenate ( at least that was our plan 😉 ). On our way, we stopped at Safeway to get something to drink. My husband was the one to go into the store to buy the drink, so I asked him to bring me something sweet – ONE doughnuts.

After few minutes he comes back with no less than 12 doughnuts. I started to laugh and asked him: ” why on earth did you buy 12 of them when I only wanted one? ” and he said :” it was on sale – 12 for $4 and I could not resist”.

We talked about how generous but yet irrational his decision was. If he had bought just one doughnut he would have paid 60 cents, but instead he paid $4. Why?

The answer is – it was a good deal!

How many times have you bought items you don’t need just because it was on sale?

How many times you took FREE items that you don’t need just because it is free ?

I know I have done it so many times, I am ashamed to admit, but really – can you remember just one time you did it yourself?

The book http://www.predictablyirrational.com/ is explaining many concepts to irrational decision, one of them is the concept of FREE and why it works like magic every time, others are – why we will choose the more expensive items just because we think it better, and why we have an anchor to every choice we make.

I highly recommend to read and judge yourself according to what you are learning! you will be amazed to see how your mind works!

Love and Peace, Relli