4. What Do Grocery Store Prices and Heart Surgery Have in Common?

Freakonomics, M.D.

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture, Science

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2021

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

Humans are hardwired to focus on the left digit in numbers. It’s why products are priced at $3.99 instead of $4.00. But does this left-digit bias also affect medical decisions? Host Bapu Jena is joined by a fellow researcher and a cardiologist to explain how left-digit bias shows up in one of the most important decisions a doctor can make, what it means for patients, and what we can do about it.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Have you ever been to the grocery store and noticed that the prices of so many different
0:10.6	items end in the number 9?
0:13.0	Take for example mangoes.
0:14.4	I love mangoes.
0:16.0	So much so that when I go to the store I don't want to buy just one.
0:18.9	I want a whole crate.
0:20.7	And if I'm lucky, a crate might cost $8.99.
0:25.0	But it's not just mangoes.
0:26.4	Look around the store.
0:27.8	A container of blackberries costs $3.99.
0:31.2	A bunch of green spinach costs $1.99.
0:34.4	A bag of cherries, $4.99.
0:36.6	There's a reason that a crate of mangoes is priced at $8.99 and not $9.
0:43.3	We're more likely to buy items if they're priced at $8.99.
0:47.9	And it's not just because the item is just one cent cheaper.
0:51.2	Say for example, if a product was $8.66, you wouldn't be any less likely to buy it than
0:57.1	if it was $8.67, that's also just a penny different.
1:01.6	But there's something important about going from $8.99 to $9 that makes us feel like
1:08.1	one item is cheaper.
1:10.5	It's because of something that behavioral economists and psychologists have known about
1:14.3	for a long time and it's called left-digit bias.
1:18.4	We all pay more attention to the digit on the left.
	...

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