The bigger, the better

PSYCHOLOGY: Gigahertz, megapixels, horsepower, calories. When buying products, consumers often turn to numbers to help them make choices through comparison. However, a new study says that even meaningless numbers can influence people’s decisions.

In a joint study by postgraduate students at the University of Chicago and Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University, Chinese students were shown two photo images that came from the same camera. The photos had been slightly changed, one to look minimally sharper and the other to look a bit brighter.

Students were told that the images came from different cameras, and were then given the specifications of the cameras. When asked for their choice, three of four students chose the “higher-resolution” image from the camera they thought offered more megapixels. So in some cases, they chose the sharper picture and in other cases they chose the brighter one.

Even meaningless numbers can influence consumers' choices.

Other tests involving comparisons in the aroma of sesame oil, softness of towels and thickness of crisps all showed the same tendency. The bigger the number provided as a specification, the more likely the students were to choose that product.

One reason for this preference may be the “bragging utility" the authors write in the Journal of Consumer Research. A bigger number offers a “source of admiration from others and happiness with oneself”, they explain.

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