I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. In today's talk, psychologist Nero Sivanathan

unpacked something called the dilution effect, which is something that happens in our decision-making.

I found this talk from TEDx London Business School in 2019, not only to be eye-opening, but also actionable about how to

persuade others, even in the face of the psychological biases we all bring to the table.

Imagine you're on a shopping trip. You've been looking for a luxury line of dinnerware

set to add to your kitchen collection. As it turns out, your local

department store has announced a sale on the very set you've been looking for. So you rush to the

store to find a 24-piece set on sale. Eight dinner plates, all in good condition, eight soup and solid bowls, all in good condition, and eight dessert plates, all in good condition, eight soup and salad bowls all in good condition,

and eight dessert plates, all in good condition.

Now, consider for a moment how much you would be willing to pay for this dinnerware set.

Now, imagine an alternate scenario,

not having seen this 24-pice luxury set, you rush to the store to find

a 40-piece dinnerware set on sale. Eight dinner plates, all in good condition. Eight soup and salad bowls,

all in good condition. Eight dessert plates, all in good condition. Eight cups, two of them are

broken. Eight saucers, seven of them are broken.

Now, consider for a moment how much you would be willing to pay for this 40-piece dinner set.

This is the premise of a clever experiment by Christopher C. from the University of Chicago.

It's also the question that I've asked hundreds of students in my classroom.

What were their responses?

On average, when afforded the 24-piece luxury set,

they were willing to spend 390 pounds for the set.

When afforded the 40-piece dinnerware set,

...