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Comment by jmann99999 | Hacker News Reader

I have always heard of different conclusions from too many choices. It was from a study known as the "Jam Experiment." [0] They found that in a grocery store that if customers had six choices, they bought more jam than if there were 14 choices.

They termed it decision paralysis.

[0] https://scottfenstermaker.com/too-much-choice-the-jam-experi...

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The version I'm familiar with was more about driving consumers to a middle-priced version by adding a more expensive version.

Offer version A at $10, and version B at $50, most people pick A.

Offer version A at $10, version B at $50, and version C at $25, most people pick C.

What you're referencing is usually called the decoy effect, which isn't the same as decision paralysis.

Never heard of decoy effect. Always referred to this phenomenon as “anchoring”

> Never heard of decoy effect. Always referred to this phenomenon as “anchoring”

Correct. The example they gave is anchoring.

Anchoring typically looks like $10-$25-$50, and they want you to buy the $25 item. Sometimes the presence of the $50 item can have zero sales, but the $25 item will sell better than if the options were just $10 and $25.

Decoy would be more like $10-$40-$50, and they want you to buy the $50 item and the $40 item has less than it’s sticker value. Decoy is commonly used to encourage people to buy at the top of their budget range (as one example).

Reminds me of Apple’s pricing scheme

Personally, when presented with too many choices, I always feel like some of the choices are the wrong ones - perhaps the cheap ones are garbage, or quite oppositely, you're paying an extra for nothing - and I'm afraid of being a fool for picking them.

No matter how it goes, it's always a negative experience for me.

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