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In a recent study, shoppers were asked to taste a chocolate-chip cookie. When given a cookie from a full jar, they said it tasted all right; but when they were offered one from a nearly empty jar, they said it tasted better. This shows an interesting aspect of human nature. The scarcer something is, the more highly people tend to value it.
D.H.Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's lover brought the author the most fame not when it was first published, but when it was banned--and when many thousands of black-market copies of the book were sold before it was finally made legal.
People rush to see a controversial film, and music that is banned from the radio immediately becomes popular. In 1977, the BBC banned "God Save the Queen", a song by the punk rock band The Sex Pistols. Within weeks, the song was nearly at the top of the British pop charts. "God Save the Queen" was brought on the market by the A&M recordings are now some of the most valuable records in Britain, with resale values going as high as £13,000 a copy.
According to social psychologists like Robert Cialdini, our instinctive interest in acquiring things that are rare reflects our evolutionary history. In the past, when food or raw materials were scarce, real value increased, because possession gave the owner an advantage for suivival.
Salespeople love pressing the "scarce, therefore valuable" button, with warnings like "Buy now while stocks last!" and "Quick! Limited-Time Offer!" Clever advertisers know that it's much more effective to focus on the fear of loss than on the benefit of gain. A portrait photography studio pushes its customers to buy as many different photos as possible, because "Stock problems force us to burn unsold pictures of your child after 24 hours". Experts at the University of California found that homeowners are 300 percent more likely to buy an energy-saving plan if the message is "Stop losing 50 cents a day" instead of "Start saving 50 cents a day". Do you want to make a proposal to your management for a
