[Foundation-l] The value of "free"

Thu Mar 13 22:51:33 UTC 2008

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 8:56 AM, SlimVirgin <slimvirgin at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 3/13/08, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>  > http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,2264503,00.html
>  >
>  >  It's about "free" as in zero-cost, but something about this feels
>  >  relevant to what we do.
>  >
>  I remember reading a study about this a long time ago -- how telling
>  someone they're getting something for free will make them behave
>  irrationally.
>
>  It was research into car-buying practices. The researchers found that
>  one way to get people to buy a car was to offer a free CD player and
>  radio. (This was in the days before these became more or less standard
>  in cars.) You could take two cars, one cheaper than the other, but the
>  same in all other respects, except that one had a free radio. The one
>  with the free radio would sell, even though the price difference was
>  such that, with the saving, the buyers could have had several radios
>  installed in the one without. But no, they wanted the free radio, and
>  were willing to pay extra for its "freeness." :-)

TANSTAAFL !

--
John