← all facts
decision making
You value items more just because they are rare.
A 1975 study showed that participants rated cookies as more desirable when they were presented in a nearly empty jar.
When supply is restricted, your brain automatically increases the perceived value of the object to prevent the loss of potential access. The competition against others or the simple threat of unavailability overrides the objective utility of the item.
The item is not better, only harder for you to get.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Worchel, Lee, and Adewole, 1975
- What the check found
- The study confirmed that scarcity increases perceived value. The claim is accurate, though it describes only the static portion of a more nuanced finding involving supply transitions.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.