It never works on me. I was taught at a very early age that pricing down by one cent of one dollar is a psychological trick and that I should round up to the nearest whole number.
Yes, for the general population. Otherwise, companies will stop the psychological pricing. Same with corporate snooping to see our shopping and grocery habits and then send us with targeted ads.
that’s the important caveat:
it does NOT work on everyone, but that’s irrelevant.
if it works on even 1% of people, but has zero effect on everyone else, companies would still use it everywhere anyways.
a 1% difference over even just a couple thousand customers adds up over time.
so, no, it doesn’t work on everyone, and it doesn’t have to.
it just has to work on some people, and not deter any more people than it works on.
if anyone wonders when it does and does not work: like most of these psych-tricks the effect mostly disappears when you point it out to people or otherwise make them actively think about what they’re buying.
same for the change-the-layout-of-the-store-all-the-time thing: doesn’t work on all people, doesn’t have to.
On people who are actively trying to compensate for it, or did you just mean the overall population?
same way placebo still works (to a degree) even when you know it’s placebo
your subconcious is not logical, and no amount of conscious logic will fully defeat its influence
to think yourself immune is foolish and dangerous, that’s when you allow it to work even better as you “logically” explain away every manipulation you were influenced by, and convince yourself you made a decision fully by yourself. The danger gets even hotter when it comes to political propaganda that uses the exact same tricks as marketing
