消费心理学
Consumer Psychology
哈喽，我们是MindUp，一个以科普心理学知识、关注青少年心理健康、与组织社会公益活动为目标的非盈利性高中生社团！
Hello, we are MindUp, a non-profit high school student group whose goal is to share psychology knowledge, pay attention to teenage mental health, and hold social charity activities.
你是否想过为什么人们是怎么在一堆相似的商品中做出决定的？为什么人们会选择特定品牌的产品？或者什么会影响人们在消费时做出的选择？如果你有这些疑问，那这篇文章或许可以为你解答。消费心理学是一门研究消费者在消费活动中的心理现象和行为规律的学科，它探寻人们的思想，观点，心理特征和社会环境对消费的影响。
Have you ever thought about how people can make a choice among a sea of similar products, why customers tend to choose certain brands, and what affects people’s purchasing behavior? This article may fulfill your curiosity. Consumer psychology is a subject that studies people’s mindset and behaviors in people’s consumption activities. It explores how people’s perspectives, opinions, characteristics, and social environments influence consumption.
诱饵效应
Decoy Effect
诱饵效应，就是指人们对两个不相上下的选项进行选择时，因第三个新选项，也就是诱饵的加入，会使某个旧选项显得更有吸引力。
Decoy effect occurs when while people hesitate between two similar choices, the third new choice (the decoy) makes one of the old choices more attractive.
举个例子，比如说我们去买咖啡，一杯小号的咖啡只要12块钱，一杯大号的咖啡要18块钱。商家了解消费者的心理，知道我们会选择12块钱的小杯咖啡，因为18块钱看起来比12块贵了太多了，所以他们利用这个“诱饵效应”，推测消费者们的心理，加入了第三个选项，也就是诱饵：一个16块的中杯咖啡。但其实店员并没有期望我们去买这个中杯咖啡。把这个中杯的咖啡放进来只是为了让我们觉得这个大杯的划算些。没有这个诱饵，我们会在12块和18块的咖啡之间比较。但有了这诱饵之后，顾客们会觉得，为什么我们不直接买大杯咖啡呢？只是多了两块钱而已。
For example, imagine we are buying a cup of coffee. A small-sized cup costs $12, and a large-sized cup costs $18. Marketers know that consumers would choose the small cup because $18 seems much more expensive than $12, so they utilize the "decoy effect" to speculate on consumers' psychology and add a bait: a $16 medium-sized coffee. However, the sellers don’t actually expect us to buy the medium one. Rather, the medium-sized coffee exists to make consumers feel that the large-sized choice is a better deal. Without the decoy, we'd be comparing $12 and $18 coffees; but with the bait, customers would think: why don't we just buy the large-sized one? It's just two bucks more.
鸟笼效应
Birdcage Effect
某人在偶然的情况下获得了一样物品，就会添置和它相关、但自己却不需要的东西的现象，被称作鸟笼效应。
The birdcage effect explains that people tend to spend more effort or resources on something they get by accident instead of throwing them away.
这个效应起源于一个赌约。1907年，心理学家詹姆斯和他的好友卡尔森打赌，不久就会让卡尔森养上一只鸟。对鸟不感兴趣的卡森不以为然。没过几天，卡尔森过生日，詹姆斯送上一只精致的乌笼作为礼物。此时的卡尔森依然认为，即使詹姆斯给了自己鸟笼，自己也不会养鸟。可是，从此以后，只要客人来访，看见书桌旁那只空荡荡的鸟笼，都会无一例外地问："教授，你养的鸟什么时候死了？“卡尔森只好一次次地向客人解释：“我从来就没有养过乌。”然而，每次客人都有着困惑而不信任的目光。终于他不愿意忍受每次都解释，为了让鸟笼的存在显得顺理成章，只好买了一只鸟回来。
This effect stemmed from a bet. In 1907, psychologist James made a bet with his friend Carlson that he will soon make Carlson start keeping a bird. Carlson did not take James’ words seriously because he was not interested in birds. A few days later, James sent Carlson a delicate birdcage as a birthday present. At that moment, Carlson still firmly believed that he would not have a bird as a pet even if he has had a birdcage. But since then, Carlson’s every guest who saw the empty birdcage would ask, “Professor Carlson, when did your bird pass away?” Carlson had no choice but to explain repeatedly, “I have never had a bird”, which was always accompanied by guests’ confused and distrustful faces. Ultimately, he had enough of repeating the explanation and bought a bird to make sense of the birdcage.
回想一下：
你是否因为买了一个花瓶而频繁买花？
因为买了不与旧衣服相配的新鞋子而新买了一整套衣服？
因为外卖的满减，而点了一大堆根本吃不下的东西？
这都是因为鸟笼效应在暗暗地影响我们。
Cast your mind back:
Have you frequently bought flowers for a vase?
Have you purchased a set of clothes to wear with a pair of shoes?
Have you ordered excessive takeouts after gaining coupons?
These behaviors were affected by birdcage effect.
边际效益递减
Diminishing Marginal Utility
边际效应递减指购买者在逐次增加一个单位消费品的时候，带来的单位效用是逐渐递减的(虽然带来的总效用仍然是增加的)。消费者为这个消费品愿意付出的价格也会递减，商家需要借助营销方式来增加消费。
The law of diminishing marginal utility says that the marginal utility from each additional unit declines as consumption increases, although the total utility increases. The price that consumers are willing to pay for the product would also decrease, and sellers need to increase consumption by marketing.
比如说，大多数人只吃得下一个冰淇淋，而商家为了刺激消费，会推出第二个半价的活动鼓励我们消费者继续进行购物。
For example, most people can only eat one ice cream at one time. In order to increase consumption, marketers would sell the second ice cream at half of the original price to encourage more consumption.
不知道这篇文章是否让你更了解商家的”套路”了呢？
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