Noah Goldstein

Presumably a very little person first said, “Good things come in small packages.” Whoever coined the phrase, it’s clear that this person understood the power of thinking big by going smal

We thought that when asked to make a donation, even

We thought that when asked to make a donation, even those who would genuinely like to support the charity in some way say no because they can’t afford to donate very much and they assume the small amount they can afford won’t do much to help the cause.

Consistent with our hypothesis, people in the “even-a-penny-will-help” condition were almost twice as likely as those in the other condition to donate to the cause (50 percent vs. 28.6 percent

On the face of it, the study suggests that when you want assistance from others, simply pointing out that even a small offering would be acceptable and worthwhile to you is likely to be an effective strategy

There are several applications of the “even-a-penny-will-help” approach in the workplace. To coworkers regarding a community project, “Just an hour of your time would really help.” To a colleague whose handwriting is illegible, “Just a little more clarity would help.” To a busy prospective client whose needs must be more fully understood, “Even a brief initial phone call would help.” The chances are that this little step in your direction won’t prove so little after all

For example, can an examination of how people list their “treasures” on eBay tell us whether we should use a low starting price or a high starting price

Yet, they wondered

These research findings suggest that if you are in the business of offering goods or services through any kind of competitive bidding process, starting the bidding at a fairly low price can be a way of en‍

enhancing the final sale price. However, there is one very important caveat to consider: The researchers found that the social proof component was a critical factor in the enhanced effectiveness of the lower starting price. So, when the traffic for a particular item was constrained (for example, due to a misspelling of the product name, which limits the number of prospective bidders who are likely to find the item through a typical eBay search), the lower starting price was less effective. This means that a lower starting price is likely to be most effective when there’s a possibility that many bidders will join the bidding fray for your product but is likely to be least effective when the bidding is limited to only two potential parties