Priceless : the myth of fair value (and how to take advantage of it)
/ William Poundstone.
- First edition.
- New York, NY : Hill and Wang, 2010.
- ix, 336 pages : illustrations, tables (black and white) ; 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The $2.9 million cup of coffee — Price cluelessness — The myth of the boomerang — Body and soul — Black is white — Helson's cigarette — The price scale — Input to output — Lunch with Maurice — Money pump — The best odds in Vegas — Cult of rationality — Kahneman and Tversky — Heuristics and biases — The devil's greatest trick — Prospect theory — Rules of fairness — Ultimatum game — The vanishing altruist — Pittsburgh is not a culture — Attacking heuristics — Deal or no deal — Prices on the planet Algon — The free 72-ounce steak — Price check — Shilling for Prada — Menu psych — The price of a super bowl ticket — Don't wrap all the Christmas presents in one box — Who's afraid of the phone bill? — Breakage and slippage — Paying for air — Cheap and cheaper — Mysteries of the 99-cent store — Meaningless zeros — Reality constraint — Selling Warhol’s beach house — Groundhog Day — Anchoring for dummies — Attention deficit — Drinking and deal making — An octillion doesn't buy what it used to — Selling the money illusion — Neutron jane — The beauty premium — Search for suckers — Pricing gender — It's all about testosterone — Liquid trust — The million-dollar club — The mischievous Mr. Market — For the love of God — Antidote for anchoring — Buddy system — The outrage theory — Honesty box — Money, chocolate, happiness.
People used to download music for free; then Steve Jobs convinced them to pay for it. How? By charging 99 cents. Prada and other luxury stores stock a few obscenely expensive items - just to make the rest of their inventory seem like a bargain. Why do text messages cost money, while e-mails are free? Why do jars of peanut butter keep getting smaller in order to keep the price the "same"? The answer is simple: prices are a collective hallucination. In Priceless, William Poundstone reveals the hidden psychology of value. In psychological experiments, people are unable to estimate "fair" prices accurately and are strongly influenced by the unconscious, the irrational, and the politically incorrect. It hasn't taken long for marketers to apply these findings. "Price consultants" advise retailers on how to convince consumers to pay more for less, and negotiation coaches offer similar advice for businesspeople cutting deals. The new psychology of price dictates the design of price tags, menus, rebates, "sale" ads, cell phone plans, supermarket aisles, real estate offers, wage packages, tort demands, and corporate buyouts. Prices are the most pervasive hidden persuaders of all. Rooted in the little-heralded story of behavioral decision theory, a field advanced most notably by the legendary team of Israeli American psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, Priceless is indispensable to anyone who buys, sells,or negotiates.