Predictably Irrational

Illusions are beautiful to look but, are they really?

Illusions are nothing but a Catch-22 situation to our sensory organs, these illusions can just be a source of fun and free entertainment on our mail boxes as indicated by the picture in the left, but when these illusions are taken for granted, and if they remain unsolved, they create myths.

Unsolved illusions can hamper the decision making ability of a person as well. Let me explain this with the help of an example:

There was an ad in, The Economist sometimes back which quoted the prices of its subscription for a year,

Case 1:

i. Online subscription = $59

ii. Print Subscription = $125

iii. Print subscription + Online Subscription = $125

The illusion (hurried decision making made simple numbers an optical illusion) makes you go for the third option. Dan Ariely, professor of behavioral economics, did a survey and found nothing different, the results were 16%, 0% and 84% against option i, ii, iii respectively. Thankfully, nobody went for second option or it would have registered as reverse evolution.

Since nobody wants option ii, why not eliminate it and there you go

Case 2:

i. Print subscription = $59

ii. Print subscription + Online Subscription = $125

All of a sudden, results change now 68% go for option (i) while just 32% remain with option (ii). The useless option became a driving factor here.

Today's entrepreneur knows how to exploit people and people don't get fooled by the mere reason that they don't understand these illusions on the contrary, they don't want to.
I leave it on you, how to decide and go about it, but remember whatever decisions you make are mostly driven by circumstances.