Dankdude
Well-Known Member
Consider two sales pitches: "Buy one, get one free" and "Buy two and get 50 percent off."
Which one is more likely to get you to open your wallet?
If you're like many consumers, the first offer appears more appealing.
The bottom line is that the two are the same.
That's the tricky thing about numbers. Depending on how figures are presented, you might feel you're saving money when, in fact, you're paying the same. Or more.
It's easy to be misled, too. Many of us have an ambivalent relationship with math: We're uncomfortable with numbers but we trust them. Advertisers, politicians and salespeople know this and use it to their advantage, says Joseph Ganem, an associate professor of physics at Loyola College in Maryland.
"It's not an outright lie," he says. "That's why it's so manipulative."
Ganem teaches quantum mechanics and studies infrared lasers. ("My expertise is light," he says. "I could talk about light for years.")
Out of curiosity three years ago, he applied his math skills to credit-card solicitations offering low introductory rates. After factoring in the transaction fees spelled out in the fine print, Ganem figured consumers would pay about the same under the new card as under their old one.
This exercise became the genesis of his book, The Two-Headed Quarter: How to See Through Deceptive Numbers and Save Money on Everything You Buy, which will be released in May. The physicist picks apart the math on all sorts of sales pitches - for houses, credit cards, insurance and zero-percent financing.
Here are some ways he says we are manipulated:
At first glance, the fruit drink appears healthier. But a single serving of Coke is 12 ounces, while the fruit drink is 8 ounces. Ounce for ounce, Coke has fewer calories and less sugar than the fruit drink, the physicist says.
Which one is more likely to get you to open your wallet?
If you're like many consumers, the first offer appears more appealing.
The bottom line is that the two are the same.
That's the tricky thing about numbers. Depending on how figures are presented, you might feel you're saving money when, in fact, you're paying the same. Or more.
It's easy to be misled, too. Many of us have an ambivalent relationship with math: We're uncomfortable with numbers but we trust them. Advertisers, politicians and salespeople know this and use it to their advantage, says Joseph Ganem, an associate professor of physics at Loyola College in Maryland.
"It's not an outright lie," he says. "That's why it's so manipulative."
Ganem teaches quantum mechanics and studies infrared lasers. ("My expertise is light," he says. "I could talk about light for years.")
Out of curiosity three years ago, he applied his math skills to credit-card solicitations offering low introductory rates. After factoring in the transaction fees spelled out in the fine print, Ganem figured consumers would pay about the same under the new card as under their old one.
This exercise became the genesis of his book, The Two-Headed Quarter: How to See Through Deceptive Numbers and Save Money on Everything You Buy, which will be released in May. The physicist picks apart the math on all sorts of sales pitches - for houses, credit cards, insurance and zero-percent financing.
Here are some ways he says we are manipulated:
- The bigger the better. We like BIG numbers. So marketers use huge digits to grab our attention. America Online, for instance, once ran a promotion offering 1,025 hours of free Internet time. The small print said the offer was good for 45 days. Given that there are 1,080 hours in 45 days, customers would have had to be in front of their computers nearly around the clock to take full advantage of AOL's offer.
- In precision we trust. We give credence to numbers that are exact. Politicians are masters of precision. "They will never say 'half.' They say '50 percent.' It's never 'more than a trillion,' it's '1.6 trillion,' " Ganem says. They believe that very precise numbers gives them more credibility, he says.
- Apples and oranges. Food packaging also can mislead people into believing that what they eat is healthy, depending on the sample size used, Ganem says.
At first glance, the fruit drink appears healthier. But a single serving of Coke is 12 ounces, while the fruit drink is 8 ounces. Ounce for ounce, Coke has fewer calories and less sugar than the fruit drink, the physicist says.
- Aversion to losses. We're not just misled by clever math. Marketers also play on our psychological aversion to losses, Ganem says.
