Are Your Five Senses Tricking You to Spend More?

David Ning — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:00:03 +0000

Our senses help provide input and perception to everything in the outside world. Without them, everything would be lifeless. But in a strictly financial sense (no pun intended), are they actually helping keep us in the poor house? Let's look at each more specifically and allow me to give you examples of what I mean.

1. Sight

Ahh, our eyes. The source of our sight is also the easier sense for marketers to tackle. Every time we see an advertisement, we are tempted to buy. See a newspaper ad with a huge 80% off sale? We want to hop in the car and head straight to the store. Love gadgets and see computer coupons online? Click click. To marketers, it sounds like this: "cha-ching."

2. Hearing

Every business owner will tell you that "word of mouth," or referrals, are the best way to gain customers. When was the last time you heard your friend talk about how great a product was that you ended up NOT buying. iPhone 4G? Most people bought one without even seeing one. That's powerful. Listen to enough good reviews, and you will buy.

3. Taste

Yum yum. Good food almost never escapes me. Is it really a surprise that restaurants try to make everything flavorful by adding more sugar and salt even at an expense of our health? They aren't out to get us, but they do want more business. When something taste good, you will come back. Imagine a restaurant where they serve bad food. In fact, what if they publicize it in their slogan "We make healthy food that has no taste!" Would you go back again and again? Actually, would you go even once?

4. Smell

Have you been tempted to host a barbeque of your own just because your neighbor just had one and you could smell it from your back yard? I have. Sometimes, I would ask the waiter what that dish was because I smelled something good, turned around and saw a dish being taken to another table. "Give me one more please."

5. Touch

Touching and seeing are the best two ways to determine quality of a product. Products such as clothing, hand bags, and furniture are some examples where the quality can make a huge difference. Unfortunately, the higher the quality, the higher the price tag. You will absolutely get higher quality leather by paying more, but you probably won't be healthier because you bought a $20,000 sofa instead of the $500 one.

Oh No!

Life would be pretty meaningless without our five senses, but instead of calling it quits and just declaring that life plain sucks because they help you spend more, you can think of it this way:

Our senses give us the opportunity to choose. We can feel the quality before we purchase. We could make sure we eat what smells, looks and taste good. And before we decide on buying anything, we can ask around and listen to other people's experiences with a certain service or product.

Like everything else, our senses can trick us into spending more, or it can help us spend less. The decision is almost always up to you. Life is great, because you can still decide.

This article is from David Ning of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Mind Control Guru Can Pay With Blank Sheets of Paper

Paul Michael — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:26:35 +0000

My wife told me recently about a guy from my homeland, England, who has such powers of mind control that he can pay for almost any item with blank sheets of paper. I laughed it off. Then I saw the video and was quite amazed by the power of the human mind. (See also: The Psychology of Free, and Its Power Over You)

The video shows you how he does it, but it basically revolves around the idea that the mind sees what it expects to see. No one would dare pay for an item with blank paper, and because Mr. Brown keeps your mind busy your primal brain kicks in and concentrates on language rather than something more obvious. The result is that Mr. Brown can pay for almost anything with nothing. Quite a trick.

He gives everyone their money back. But other folks may not be so nice and could certainly use this against you if you work in a store or buy something from a market vendor and expect change.

Derren Brown also uses a similar technique at the dog track, handing over worthless tickets for large piles of cash. It's quite amazing. When interviewed afterwards most people swore blind (no pun intended) that they saw the money, or the winning ticket.

As someone who loves learning about the latest and greatest scams and cons, I think this one tops them all. Using the power of your own mind against you is quite a scam and requires little to no set up, no partners, and no real props. If you're interested in seeing just how he does a lot of his mind control experiments, check out his show on the sci-fi channel . Amazon.com also has some Derren Brown goods. But please, don't go using you new found powers for evil, ok?

Pure effect: Direct mind reading and magical artistry

Lucky for all of us the Derren Brown is merely filming TV. And by the way, I have checked, several times, to see if this is all done with plants or actors. It is not, I assure you. Certainly makes you think, doesn't it?

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: