29 Psychological Tricks

To Make You Buy More

Published
1 year ago
on
September 21, 2020
By
Carmen Ang
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29 Psychological Tricks To Make You Buy More
Ever suffered from buyer’s remorse? You’re not alone.

According to a recent survey, only 5% of people have never felt guilty about buying
something. That means the majority of us, at some point in our lives, have regretted a purchase.
But consumers aren’t necessarily only to blame for impulse buys. After all, we’re constantly
bombarded with advertisements and marketing tactics specifically tailored to try and get us to
spend more money.

Today’s graphic by TitleMax explains 29 different psychological tactics that marketers try to
get consumers to buy more.

Tricks are for Marketers

While this list isn’t exhaustive, it provides some key examples of the ways that marketers are
attempting to influence your subconscious mind.

We noticed some high-level trends among the 29 tactics, which we compiled into four
overarching sections:

 Visual Pricing Tricks

These tricks aim to intentionally minimize the appearance of the price, so it’s more palatable
to consumers. For instance, a store will price something at $9.99 instead of $10.00, or label
a product as ―buy-one-get-one‖ rather than 50% off.
 Intentional Language Tricks
It’s not what you say, but how you say it. Making products seem costly to manufacture,
offering exclusivity, and using words associated with small amounts fall under this category.
These tricks use semantics to position a product in an appealing way.
 Brick-and-Mortar Tricks
A store’s layout is less arbitrary than you may realize. Having a bright and colorful
entrance, playing calm and slow music, and putting the essential items at the back of the
store are a few tactics that fall into this section. These tricks use displays and product
placement to influence consumer behavior.
 Urgency Tricks
A false sense of urgency and phase-out discounts are included in this category. If a
consumer believes they might miss out on a deal, they’re more likely to buy.

The Theories in Practice

While most retailers are guilty of using at least a few of these tactics, several big companies are
notorious for their use of psychological tricks to boost sales.

For instance, Ikea is well known for its confusing, maze-like layout. This is no accident, as an
Ikea store’s architecture is designed specifically to maximize product exposure—it’s mastered
what’s called the Gruen effect, a term named after architect Victor Gruen, whose elaborate
displays were proven to convert browsers into buyers.
 Another example is Walmart’s rollback pricing, which uses visual contrast to make the sale price
more appealing. It’s clearly served the company well—in 2019, Walmart made $524 billion in
revenue, making it the world’s largest retailer.
Costco uses a few tactics on the list, but one it’s notorious for is putting fresh produce in the
back of the store. That means customers need to pass through the electronics, clothing, and
household goods sections before they can get to the necessities.
While the above tactics are in a gray area, other tricks are flat out dishonest. Makeup brand
Sunday Riley was caught writing fake Sephora reviews to boost sales. Employees were
encouraged to write outstanding reviews for the company, and the CEO even provided
instructions on how to avoid getting caught.

The Influencer Era

As consumers become aware of certain marketing tactics, retailers are forced to switch up their
game in order to remain effective.

A relatively recent phenomenon is influencer marketing, which is when brands partner

with vloggers or influencers to endorse a product. And these partnerships tend to work—a
recent survey revealed that 40% of people have purchased something based on an influencer’s
recommendation.
But how long will influencer marketing—or any of these tactics—stay effective? Some of the
more subtle pricing tactics might stay relevant for longer, but it’s unlikely that all of these tricks
will stand the test of time.

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Mapped: Second Primary Languages
Around the World
This fascinating map highlights the second most commonly spoken primary
language in almost nearly every country.

Published
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Mapped: Second Primary Languages Around the World
After the primary language, what second languages are used as native tongues in your country?

The answer reveals a lot about history and location. Whether through immigration, colonization,
or local culture, a primary language can either spread around the world or remain rooted in place.

This map from MoveHub shows the second most commonly spoken primary language in most
countries, using data from the CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia as of February 2021.

The Difference Between Primary and Secondary

Languages
First, it’s important to differentiate between primary languages and secondary languages.

A primary language—also known as a first or native language—is the language we use most
frequently to communicate. These are languages we are usually born with, have a lot of exposure
to, and use at home.

On the other hand, a secondary language is one we learn or pick up after our primary language.
In many countries, English is the most commonly learned, with close to 1 billion speakers.
But a map of common second languages can simply show just how many countries
prioritize learning English, the de-facto international language in many organizations. Instead,
this map highlights the movement of people by showing the second-most common primary
language.

The Second Most Common Primary Languages by

Country
Even when filtering by primary language use, however, English and other Indo-European
languages dominate the world.

With 55 countries speaking it as the second-most common primary language, English came out
on top.

Top 10 Most Popular Second Primary Languages Number of Countries

English 55

French 14

Russian 13

Spanish 8

Creole 8

Arabic 6

Kurdish 4

Portugese 4

Italian 3

Quechua 3
The use of English as a second primary language was primarily concentrated in Western
Europe, Northern Africa, and Southeast Asia and Oceania.
Similarly to second-place French with 14 countries and third-place Russian with 13 countries,
English was most common in proximity to English-speaking countries or where there was a
history of immigration.
Other second-most common primary languages highlighted different cultures within countries,
such as China’s second-most common language Cantonese. Alternatively, they showed the
primary indigenous language before colonization, such as the Quechua languages in South
America.

What other interesting or surprising language patterns can you spot in the map above?

CONTINUE READING

GREEN

Mapped: Human Impact on the Earth’s

Surface
This detailed map looks at where humans have (and haven’t) modified Earth’s
terrestrial environment. See human impact in incredible detail.

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Mapped: Human Impact on the Earth’s Surface
With human population on Earth approaching 8 billion (we’ll likely hit that milestone in 2023),
our impact on the planet is becoming harder to ignore with each passing year.

Our cities, infrastructure, agriculture, and pollution are all forms of stress we place on the natural
world. This map, by David M. Theobald et al., shows just how much of the planet we’ve now
modified. The researchers estimate that 14.6% or 18.5 million km² of land area has been
modified – an area greater than Russia.
Defining Human Impact
Human impact on the Earth’s surface can take a number of different forms, and researchers took
a nuanced approach to classifying the ―modifications‖ we’ve made. In the end, 10 main stressors
were used to create this map:

1. Built-Up Areas: All of our cities and towns

2. Agriculture: Areas devoted to crops and pastures
3. Energy and extractive resources: Primarily locations where oil and gas are
extracted
4. Mines and quarries: Other ground-based natural resource extraction,
excluding oil and gas
5. Power plants: Areas where energy is produced – both renewable and non-
renewable
6. Transportation and service corridors: Primarily roads and railways
7. Logging: This measures commodity-based forest loss (excludes factors like
wildfire and urbanization)
8. Human intrusion: Typically areas adjacent to population centers and roads
that humans access
9. Natural systems modification: Primarily modifications to water flow,
including reservoir creation
10. Pollution: Phenomenon such as acid rain and fog caused by air pollution
The classification descriptions above are simplified. See the methodology for full descriptions and
calculations.

A Closer Look at Human Impact on the Earth’s Surface

To help better understand the level of impact humans can have on the planet, we’ll take a closer
look three regions, and see how the situation on the ground relates to these maps.

Land Use Contrasts: Egypt

Almost all of Egypt’s population lives along the Nile and its delta, making it an interesting place
to examine land use and human impact.
The towns and high intensity agricultural land following the river stand out clearly on the human
modification map, while the nearby desert shows much less impact.

Intensive Modification: Netherlands

The Netherlands has some of the heavily modified landscapes on Earth, so the way it looks on
this map will come as no surprise.
The area shown above, Rotterdam’s distinctive port and surround area, renders almost entirely in
colors at the top of the human modification scale.

Resource Extraction: West Virginia

It isn’t just cities and towns that show up clearly on this map, it’s also the areas we extract our
raw materials from as well. This mountainous region of West Virginia, in the United States,
offers a very clear visual example.
 The mountaintop removal method of mining—which involves blasting mountains in order to
retrieve seams of bituminous coal—is common in this region, and mine sites show up clearly in
the map.

You can explore the interactive version of this map yourself to view any area on the globe.
What surprises you about these patterns of human impact?

CONTINUE READING

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