The number you didn’t choose
A question about a consulting fee. Answer quickly, the way you would if someone asked you in a meeting.
The option nobody buys
A magazine subscription, three plans (or two, depending on your luck). Pick one.
A magazine you like is running its yearly offer. Pick the plan you'd actually buy.
Prices are per year. There's no wrong answer, only a wrong reason.
Same numbers, different answer
Six hundred jobs, two rescue plans, one choice. Take it seriously.
A factory is about to close and 600 jobs are at risk. There's money for one rescue plan. Which one do you back?
Here are both versions side by side. Read the plans on each row.
They're the same plans. Saving 200 of 600 is losing 400 of 600. The only thing that changed is the verb. When the sure thing is described as saving, most people take it. When the exact same sure thing is described as losing, most people roll the dice.
What a coin flip costs you
You could lose €100. How much would you have to be able to win?
A fair coin. Tails, you lose €100. What's the smallest amount heads would have to win you before you'd take the bet?
One confession: the slider started at €100, the fair price. That was an anchor too. Most people who move it still move it up.
Want to flip it anyway? Nothing real is at stake.
The boxes you didn’t touch
A new app wants you to confirm your settings. You know how this goes.
You've just downloaded a new app. It asks you to confirm your settings. Change whatever you like, then continue.
The pull of free
Two chocolates, one hand. It’s a small decision. That’s why it works.
There's a small stand at the end of a hallway. You can take one chocolate, no more. Which one?
Your case file
Kept in this browser only- 01AnchoringNot run yet
- 02The decoy effectNot run yet
- 03FramingNot run yet
- 04Loss aversionNot run yet
- 05DefaultsNot run yet
- 06The zero-price effectNot run yet
Nothing on file yet. Start with the first one.
No reader statistics anywhere on this page, because I don't collect any. Your results sit in your own browser, and the button below deletes them.
Feeling a small itch to finish the rest? That's the Zeigarnik effect: unfinished things stick in the mind more than finished ones. I wrote about it in The tab you'll never close.
These tricks don't only live in labs. The specimen cabinet has the ones you'll meet at checkout this week, redrawn so you can look at them up close.
