See Answers Below
Written on 4 November 2007
Quiz. Two kids ring your doorbell selling notecards for a good cause, a charity. You ask “How much?” Which pitch gets the most takers?
- “Eight for three dollars.”
- “Eight for three-hundred pennies, which is a bargain.”
We recently discussed the story of a fifteen-year-old subpoenaed by the SEC for tricking thousands of stock traders out of millions of dollars.
He found a way to use Information Overload to his advantage.
In most cases we just turn away from Information Overload. We tune out and move on.
In rare cases we gulp down the offer instead, sight unseen.
Why?
1. The fifteen-year-old Lebed already had our attention. He crowed about his winnings and offered us a share.
2. Time was short. Act now or miss out, Lebed warned.
3. He dumped a heavy load of due diligence on us, numbers we could spend hours verifying and analyzing.
At that point Lebed’s victims jumped ahead to the conclusion, “Buy now and sell at $20.” Like looking ahead for the answer to a quiz.
The quiz above comes from Guy Kawasaki’s blog:
You’ve guessed already. 80% of people who heard pitch (b) bought the cards, versus 40% who heard pitch (a).
Was this a case of Information Overload?
The authors call this “Disrupt-then-Reframe”. A Ph.d and his student, as you may have guessed.
“Pennies” would be my guess. These kids aren’t doing well, we think. Such a far-fetched pitch! They’ve been brooding over this. Now they’re begging. Conjuring the shattered piggie bank for us. This is painful all around. Three bucks to end the pain….
Answers below?
Lebed planted a false answer there, to catch the cheaters. He knows his cheaters. Takes one to know…
