A volunteer subject sits at a desk in a room, thinking he's there to answer some survey questions, but in reality, this is an experiment on human behavior and covert influence. A researcher sits on the other side of the desk, facing the subject. There is a glass jar on the desk, filled with cookies.
The researcher casually asks the subject, "Would you like a cookie?" . Approximately 15% of the subjects say yes. This same scenario unfolds across several hundred subjects in order to get a baseline measurement on how many people will take a cookie when one is offered to them.To continue the experiment, the researchers then remove most of the cookies from the cookie jar and bring in another few hundred subjects to see how many of them will take a cookie when the visible supply of cookies is smaller. Some percentage of students take a cookie, but it's still not substantially different from the first part of this experiment when the cookie jar was full. So even though a larger number of people take a cookie when the available supply is smaller, it's still not a huge number.
The real magic happens when the experiment is repeated a third time, and during the experiment, before the subject is asked for a cookie, another unidentified person walks into the room and takes a cookie themselves! This is done in full view of the study subject who now sees a dwindling supply of cookies in the cookie jar. Subsequently, when now asked if they want a cookie, virtually everyone takes a cookie!
What this study caused researchers to realize is the influence power of a recently-reduced supply of a given item. Or, put another way, people want what other people are taking, and the more other people are reducing the available supply, the more people want it!
2 comments:
I read somewhere the some health insurance companies are offering significant discounts on your premium if you get "the shot."
...guess they don't want to pay for an ICU stay that can cost $6,000/day.
Post a Comment