Humans Actually Have an Irrational Preference For Round Numbers
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(https://www.sciencealert.com/we-actually-prefer-round-numbers-even-when-the-real-number-is-better-news)
>Would you rather save 90 percent with a product discount, or 91.27 percent? New research suggests that our minds are wired to prefer nice, round numbers over irregular ones, even when the irregular option means a better deal overall.
This taste for numerical aesthetics was revealed in a study involving 1,552 participants across six different experiments. The volunteers were tested on their responses to, and assessments of, rounded and non-rounded numbers when put up against each other.
Whether it's a marketing splash on a billboard, product information on packaging, or a public health campaign being run by a government, these findings can be applied in all kinds of ways to avoid confusion and to nudge people in the right direction.
>"Numbers have a language and give non-numerical perceptions," says behavioural economist Gaurav Jain, from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York (https://news.rpi.edu/content/2020/07/06/consumers-prefer-round-numbers-even-when-specific-number-better-news).
>"When we use specific numbers, the evaluations decrease. There was no apparent reason for this kind of behaviour, and this was incredibly surprising."
Seeing unusual numbers is jarring for us, the researchers think, potentially requiring more brain power to process. What's more, non-rounded numbers are more likely to be compared to ideal figures – like 100 percent – just to make better sense of them.
In our attempts to understand irregular numbers that don't end in a zero, we give them negative connotations, according to the study – they are unable to match up to the ideal rounded figures that we instinctively compare them against.
>"Managers and public health officials should be careful when using non-round numbers, because the use of this approach in communication messages may decrease the subjective evaluations of the target on the associated attributes."
>Would you rather save 90 percent with a product discount, or 91.27 percent? New research suggests that our minds are wired to prefer nice, round numbers over irregular ones, even when the irregular option means a better deal overall.
This taste for numerical aesthetics was revealed in a study involving 1,552 participants across six different experiments. The volunteers were tested on their responses to, and assessments of, rounded and non-rounded numbers when put up against each other.
Whether it's a marketing splash on a billboard, product information on packaging, or a public health campaign being run by a government, these findings can be applied in all kinds of ways to avoid confusion and to nudge people in the right direction.
>"Numbers have a language and give non-numerical perceptions," says behavioural economist Gaurav Jain, from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York (https://news.rpi.edu/content/2020/07/06/consumers-prefer-round-numbers-even-when-specific-number-better-news).
>"When we use specific numbers, the evaluations decrease. There was no apparent reason for this kind of behaviour, and this was incredibly surprising."
Seeing unusual numbers is jarring for us, the researchers think, potentially requiring more brain power to process. What's more, non-rounded numbers are more likely to be compared to ideal figures – like 100 percent – just to make better sense of them.
In our attempts to understand irregular numbers that don't end in a zero, we give them negative connotations, according to the study – they are unable to match up to the ideal rounded figures that we instinctively compare them against.
>"Managers and public health officials should be careful when using non-round numbers, because the use of this approach in communication messages may decrease the subjective evaluations of the target on the associated attributes."
