Wednesday, October 14, 2009

All Mom Her Sweaty Shoes Or Socks Or Feet



credit users react to interest rates as predicted by the economy, but are easily manipulated through gimmicks, as predicted by the psychology

rational economic agent, maximizing their own welfare, is the fundamental assumption of microeconomics. That being well informed, cold and calculating, he should know financial decisions as simple as whether to accept an offer of credit depends primarily on whether the interest rate is high or low.

In contrast to economics, psychology recognizes that human beings are more complex and manipulable. Your ability to decide rationally is limited not only by way of selecting and processing relevant information, but also by their tendency to be influenced by factors that should be irrelevant but which may affect their frame of reference, their willingness to make decisions and, ultimately, your wisdom.

the saleswoman's smile, the decor of the store, the choices of similar products and discounts (only this week) are factors that influence purchasing decisions, as we all know, and as suggested by the huge budgets spent by companies advertising and marketing.

is impossible to know how these tricks are worth, unless accurately measured their influence on consumer decisions through controlled experiments. That was what was proposed a group of researchers from prestigious U.S. universities, who studied the responses of more than 50,000 regular customers of a financial company, who were offered small loans to some differences in the rate of interest, and other apparently little important.1 details

For example, in letters showed the payments would have to make the client for various loan amounts, other more included a photo of a smiling man or woman, some others are offered as an inducement to participate in the raffle for cell phones.

The researchers were able to confirm that the economic forecasts are correct, agreed to supply more customers who are offered lower interest rates. For each percentage point lower interest rate, acceptance increased 3.5%.

But some of the psychological effects were much more important. The letters showed payments for different loan amounts discouraged customers as much as if they were gaining 2.3 percentage points more interest. Behavior irrational, because the financial conditions for the various amounts were identical, but confirms the human tendency not to decide when there are too many options.

Instead, the letters to men that included a photo of a smiling woman turned out to be an incentive equivalent to 4.5 points of interest. Women showed more sense, since their decisions to take or not take the credits did not vary with the photos.

Some psychological effects were paradoxical at first sight. The opportunity to participate in the raffle for cellular customers discouraged as much as four points of interest, suggesting that they were not willing to pay for unnecessary things. Analyzing

which consumers were easier to manipulate, the researchers found no major differences by level of education or income. And most important for a financial institution, also found that more customers were manipulated more risky (as you might expect for their lack of financial rationality.) In other words, a good financial marketing is an excellent business.

Although this experiment was done in South Africa, there is no reason to believe that their findings do not apply elsewhere. Just as the economic agent is microeconomics is the same everywhere, man of the reality that psychologists study is just as irrational here and in Capernaum.



Source: http://www.dinero.com/

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