Claudia Donofrio
Science Communication Post: Psychology & Marketing Science
Psychology is often used in marketing to make a product more appealing and help suppliers obtain the greatest sum of money for their merchandise. By using certain psychological tricks like anchoring, marketing agents price and display items in a way that is deceptive to the average consumer. Both NPR’s Science Friday podcast and PsyBlog address this phenomenon. By discussing the reasons we tend to fall prey to certain psychological strategies, these science communication sites are both extremely successful in informing the general public about these facts. However, in terms of maintaining interest and providing particular tips to avoid social psychological tactics in marketing, the NPR Science Friday podcast ultimately is a more successful approach in science communication than a psychology blog.
In the NPR Science Friday podcast titled the “Psychology of Prices” columnist and author William Poundstone discusses his book Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value that researches the psychology behind pricing certain products for consumers. By examining a variety of scientific studies conducted on psychology and prices, Poundstone explains how suppliers mislead consumers into buying a product for a much more expensive price than the object’s actual worth. Social psychological strategies such as anchoring fool consumers in believing they are making an intelligent purchase. For example, when a car salesman states an initial or “anchor” price for a particular vehicle, he sets a ridiculously high value, knowing the outcome price the consumer will agree to will be marginally close to the anchored price. This is because psychologically the consumer will feel too uninformed and intimidated to argue the price down to an acceptable value and will lead himself to believe the anchor price is a reasonable starting point for negotiation.
While the “Psychology of Prices” podcast explains each psychology trick marketing agents use, it also provides its audience with useful tips to recognize ploys and avoid falling prey to marketing psychology. By comparing prices, and acknowledging when for example, a salesman is selling something worth $6 for $7.99 to make the item appear like it is on sale, consumers can make better decisions while shopping. While the podcast was meant for a group of people who normally listen and contribute to NPR the language in the podcast was suitable for an average person who does not know much about psychology. This is in part what made the podcast so successful in its purpose to convey information. By being informative, but casual in its approach, “Psychology of Prices” appeals to a wider audience than if Poundstone merely read from the research papers he examined. Another strength of the podcast was its interesting subject matter and relevance. Since we are all consumers, we all fall victim to marketing scams and therefore would want to use psychology to our benefit.
In the PsyBlog blog post “Why Do People Watch Scary Movies, Stay in Ice Hotels or Eat Bacon-Flavoured Ice-Cream?” psychologist and blogger Dr. Jeremy Dean examines similar psychological phenomena present in marketing. Looking at conceptual consumption, Dr. Dean explains what is so catchy about gimmicky products like bacon-flavored ice cream or hotels made of ice. He claims that people are not necessarily drawn to the value or importance of the product, but the concept surrounding it. Though we know that bacon-flavored ice cream is probably gross or that ice hotels are cold and overpriced, we as consumers are drawn to the novelty of those ideas and the unique experiences we get from them. This, the blog explains can lead us to make some wasteful spending choices.
The PsyBlog is well written and like the NPR podcast, targets the average consumer population. While its purpose is to inform consumers about the psychological factors affecting positive and negative conceptual consumption, the blog post does not necessarily state ways for people to avoid these behaviors. While simply addressing the problem can help consumers recognize future examples of conceptual consumption, the blog could have provided more solutions to the situation. Also in terms of relaying its information interestingly and for a larger audience to see, the PsyBlog was a little less successful. While the NPR podcast took callers’ questions and provided a discussion-based format for addressing the topic, the PsyBlog was rather limited in its abilities to creatively present and examine its information. Altogether though, the blog provided useful information and gave examples to keep readers interested, proving its overall success as an outlet for scientific information.
Thus, as can be seen in the NPR Science Friday podcast and the PsyBlog, scientific information can be successfully communicated to the general public through a variety of different medias or sources. Knowing this, scientists will hopefully be able to disseminate useful information, and keep communities informed as both scientific discovery and technology progresses further in the future.
My Sources:
NPR Science Friday “Psychology of Prices”
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/01/01/2010/the-psychology-of-prices.html
PsyBlog: “Why Do People Watch Scary Movies, Stay in Ice Hotels or Eat Bacon-Flavoured Ice-Cream?”
http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/04/why-do-people-watch-scary-movies-stay-in-ice-hotels-or-eat-bacon-flavoured-ice-cream.php
