Why Things Cost $19.95: As [University of Florida marketing professors Chris Janiszewski and Dan Uy] explain in the February issue of Psychological Science, people appear to create mental measuring sticks that run in increments away from any opening bid, and the size of the increments depends on the opening bid. That is, if we see a $20 toaster, we might wonder whether it is worth $19 or $18 or $21; we are thinking in round numbers. But if the starting point is $19.95, the mental measuring stick would look different. We might still think it is wrongly priced, but in our minds we are thinking about nickels and dimes instead of dollars, so a fair comeback might be $19.75 or $19.50.
De um comentário ao artigo: Back in olden times, when five cents was actually worth five cents (or marks or pence or drachmas, insert the currency of your choice here...), shop-keepers would price their items to deliberately avoid round numbers - 19.95 instead of 20.00. This was to ensure that their staff had to open the till (and thus record the transaction) to give change, and not pocket the money.
