The Myth of Choice_ Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits - Kent Greenfield [57]
Of course this raises the question of what compulsion is. If it means that a person has no control at all over his or her physical actions, then compulsion and addiction are very limited problems. Even heroin addicts have some level of control over whether they continue to use.13 But we can recognize that our choices are the outcome of a range of inputs, many of which we’re not conscious of. These factors might not force our behavior as strongly as true compulsions do, but nonetheless they constantly pressure us toward irrational decisions. And here we can recognize why companies spend so much on advertising and marketing.
From a company’s perspective, if it can create compulsions for its product, great. But influences that fall short of compulsion also work. Marketers know that we are more likely to buy products presented at eye level than placed elsewhere on the shelf. They know that we’re more likely to buy a product if it’s near a more expensive product, so the latter item becomes the “frame” in which we compare prices. They know to put a product on sale, so that its old price becomes the comparative frame for the new price. When we shop for goods that have variable prices, like homes or cars, sellers know to provide a high “anchoring” price that keeps our bargaining within a narrow band.
Marketers know that if they tell us a product is in short supply, that we need to “act now,” or that the product is available only to a select few, then we will rush in, elbows out.14 (Remember the craze for the Wii, Cabbage Patch Kids, or initial public offerings of common stock in 1990sera Internet start-ups? We really want what we cannot have.) They know that associating their products with a celebrity who has a positive image will mean that customers will subconsciously link their positive feelings toward the celebrity with the product advertised. And let’s not forget the bikini effect, where marketers spark a craving in the brain’s pleasure centers with a visual or other sensory cue, and then offer a way to satisfy the craving that may have little to do with the original cue.
5.
You may be thinking at this point: “Hey, being an addict is one thing. Buying a product because it’s at eye level or because it’s on sale is another.” You’re right. We have to ask: in thinking about constraints on choice, should we care about influences that fall short of compulsion but affect our decision making most of the time? Or even some of the time?
I think we should. While some decisions we make in the marketplace are conscious, deliberative acts using our higher brain functions, many are based on habit or subconscious influences that we are not aware of and thus cannot easily evaluate. It makes complete sense that our brains do this. If I weighed every possible option for every possible purchase each time I shopped for groceries, I would never leave the store. The fact that my brain acts out of habit or looks for cognitive shortcuts when sorting through thousands of choices is a good thing. It saves me hundreds of hours a year.
In fact, we often look for shortcuts to improve our decision making. Think about all the instances when you pay someone to make decisions for you, or to use their expertise to limit your choices to a manageable few. My wife and I are renovating our kitchen as I write this, and we are at the stage of choosing a faucet, sink, appliances, and tile. If these decisions were left to me it would likely be a disaster. So my wife takes the lead, with the advice of experts, whom we pay. Much of the benefit the experts provide amounts to limiting our choices to a handful of options, or making the decisions themselves.