Imagine your local store announced a sale on Dinnerware Set you have been looking for, for a long time. You rush to the store and find a 24 piece dinner set on sale. That includes 08 plates, 08 soup bowls, and 08 dessert plates. All items are in good condition. How much will you pay for this set?
Now imagine an alternate scenario, not having seen the previously described 24 piece dinnerware set. You rush to the store and find a 40 piece dinner set on sale, with all 24 items of the previous dinner set. Plus 08 cups off which 02 are not in good condition, and 08 saucers off which 07 are not in good condition. Now, how much will you pay for this set?
That was the setup for an experiment conducted by Christopher Hsee, professor of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Chicago. The result: people were ready to spend, on average double the amount for a 24 piece set compare to a 40 piece set. Besides, a 40 piece dinnerware set includes all items of a 24 piece dinner set plus 6 cups and a saucer.
This cognitive bias is called The Dilution Effect, “The broken items dilutes the overall perceived value of that entire set.” And it turns out that this cognitive bias has an important implication on our ability to be heard and listened to, when we are presenting our arguments.
The Drug Print Ad Experiment:
Niro Sivanathan, an Organizational Psychologist, conducted an experiment. In which the participants saw an actual print ad for the drug that appeared in a magazine. And the last line of the ad was devoted to the side effects of the drug.
Half of the participants saw the ad in its entirety, mentioning both major and minor side effects. The other half of the participants saw the same ad with one small modification. Removing the minor side effects and only mentioning the major side effects.
And when both sets of participants rated the drug. Niro found that individuals who saw the ad in its entirety rated the drug’s overall severity to be significantly lower than those who saw the modified ad. Furthermore, they also show attraction towards consuming this drug.
Diagnostic And Non-Diagnostic Information:
When our brain tries to evaluate the information in the context of judgment, it breaks it down into two types, Diagnostic and Non-Diagnostic information. Diagnostic information is information that is relevant to the evaluation of context. Non-diagnostic is information that is irrelevant or inconsequential to that evaluation. And when both categories of information are mixed, the dilution effect occurs. In other words, the non-diagnostic information averages out the perceived value of diagnostic information.
Less is More:
Understanding this psychological effect will help you make this effect work for you. When you are trying to persuade someone, stick to your strong arguments only. Because your weaker arguments do not add up in the minds of the receiver, but they average out the total perceived value of your stronger arguments.
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