Blue Phoenix
Master Don Juan
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2004
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The Law of Scarcity plays a large role in the persuasion process. Opportunities are always more valuable and exciting when they are scarce and less available. We want to be the ones to own the rare items or to get the last widget on the shelf. The more the scarcity of an item increases, the more the item increases in value, and the greater the urge to own it.
Whenever choice is limited or threatened, the human need to maintain a share of the limited commodity makes us crave it even more. Scarcity increases the value of any product or service. Scarcity drives people to action, making us act quickly for fear of missing out on an opportunity. Potentially losing something before we’ve even had an opportunity to possess it drives people to action. We don’t want to miss out on anything we could have had. We want to get around any restriction placed upon us. We feel uptight and want back our freedom. This causes tension and unrest.
The Threat of Potential Loss
Anytime someone feels their freedom—to choose, think, or act—is being restricted, they ‘‘experience psychological reactance and attempt to restore their freedom.’’ With this restriction on freedom we are driven to latch on to that thing which we fear will be restricted even more. Instead of standing by and saying, ‘‘Okay, I’ll give that up,’’ we take the opposite approach. Suddenly, that restricted item is even more important to us. Researchers call this tendency ‘‘reactance.’’ An intensely motivational state, reactance causes us to be emotional, single-minded, or even irrational. We hate feeling restricted, so we are highly motivated to resolve anything that creates that feeling. It is due to reactance that we act, and that we want it now.
A study involving a group of male toddlers illustrates just how powerful the Law of Scarcity is, even in very small children. In the study, the toddlers were brought into a room that held two equally exciting and appealing toys. A Plexiglas barrier was set up so that one of the toys sat next to it, while the other sat behind. The barrier wasn’t very tall, so some of the toddlers could simply reach over the top and grab for the toy. For others, though, the barrier was still too high to reach over, so they could only reach that particular toy if they went around and behind the Plexiglas. The researchers wanted to see if the obstructed toy, being more ‘‘scarce,’’ would draw more attention and be more desirable. The boys who could easily reach over the top showed no preference toward the obstructed or the unobstructed toy; the unobstructed toy was approached just as frequently and just as quickly. For the boys who could not reach over the top, however, the obstructed toy was clearly the more desirable of the two—in fact, the boys made contact with it three times faster than with the unobstructed toy! Even in toddlers, there was an urge to defy restriction of choice!
You Can’t Have It
In another study involving children, researchers told the children they could select from a wide array of candy bars. They then pointed out a particular candy bar and told them they should not choose that one, but any of the others would be fine. The children reacted to the threat to their freedom of choice by choosing the bar they’d been told not to select. In doing so, they felt they had preserved their freedom to select whatever bar they wanted. It makes you wonder if that is also why Adam and Eve, who had the entire Garden of Eden to play in, couldn’t stay away from the forbidden fruit.
The Law of Scarcity works because it makes people feel like they will lose their opportunity to act and choose if they don’t do so immediately. The threat of such loss creates urgency in our decision making. Have you ever noticed how people tend to be more motivated when faced with potentially losing something than when they might take steps of their own accord and gain something of equal value? Studies have verified that this is a common and consistent phenomenon. For example, do you think homeowners would feel more urgency to act if they were told how much money they were going to lose if they didn’t improve their insulation, or if they were told how much money they would save? They are more likely to act if they are told about their potential loss.
The mental trigger of potential loss causes such great anxiety in people that they act to prevent the loss—even though they likely are not really interested in the product itself. Imagine making a decision where you have all day to make up your mind and you have the reassurance that when you return tomorrow, the item will still be available at the same good price. You could take days to make that decision.
However, when scarcity enters the picture and you feel that the availability of the product, the timing, or even the price is bound to change without notice, the mental trigger of scarcity begins to operate. You are driven to acquire something to alleviate the threat of potential loss. That’s why shoe salespeople always bring you back the last pair of shoes available in your size at the sale price—which ends today. What we can’t have is always more desirable and exciting than what we already possess. As the adage says, ‘‘The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.’’ Any parent knows the result of telling a child she can’t have or do something. The child will immediately drop everything and want the one thing she can’t have. Look at Romeo and Juliet. The forbidden nature of their relationship made it even stronger and more appealing to them. Parents need to be cautioned about forbidding their child’s friends and lovers because the Law of Scarcity will come back to haunt them. The Law of Scarcity works even when the desired object or thing isn’t going to really benefit the recipient.
Whenever choice is limited or threatened, the human need to maintain a share of the limited commodity makes us crave it even more. Scarcity increases the value of any product or service. Scarcity drives people to action, making us act quickly for fear of missing out on an opportunity. Potentially losing something before we’ve even had an opportunity to possess it drives people to action. We don’t want to miss out on anything we could have had. We want to get around any restriction placed upon us. We feel uptight and want back our freedom. This causes tension and unrest.
The Threat of Potential Loss
Anytime someone feels their freedom—to choose, think, or act—is being restricted, they ‘‘experience psychological reactance and attempt to restore their freedom.’’ With this restriction on freedom we are driven to latch on to that thing which we fear will be restricted even more. Instead of standing by and saying, ‘‘Okay, I’ll give that up,’’ we take the opposite approach. Suddenly, that restricted item is even more important to us. Researchers call this tendency ‘‘reactance.’’ An intensely motivational state, reactance causes us to be emotional, single-minded, or even irrational. We hate feeling restricted, so we are highly motivated to resolve anything that creates that feeling. It is due to reactance that we act, and that we want it now.
A study involving a group of male toddlers illustrates just how powerful the Law of Scarcity is, even in very small children. In the study, the toddlers were brought into a room that held two equally exciting and appealing toys. A Plexiglas barrier was set up so that one of the toys sat next to it, while the other sat behind. The barrier wasn’t very tall, so some of the toddlers could simply reach over the top and grab for the toy. For others, though, the barrier was still too high to reach over, so they could only reach that particular toy if they went around and behind the Plexiglas. The researchers wanted to see if the obstructed toy, being more ‘‘scarce,’’ would draw more attention and be more desirable. The boys who could easily reach over the top showed no preference toward the obstructed or the unobstructed toy; the unobstructed toy was approached just as frequently and just as quickly. For the boys who could not reach over the top, however, the obstructed toy was clearly the more desirable of the two—in fact, the boys made contact with it three times faster than with the unobstructed toy! Even in toddlers, there was an urge to defy restriction of choice!
You Can’t Have It
In another study involving children, researchers told the children they could select from a wide array of candy bars. They then pointed out a particular candy bar and told them they should not choose that one, but any of the others would be fine. The children reacted to the threat to their freedom of choice by choosing the bar they’d been told not to select. In doing so, they felt they had preserved their freedom to select whatever bar they wanted. It makes you wonder if that is also why Adam and Eve, who had the entire Garden of Eden to play in, couldn’t stay away from the forbidden fruit.
The Law of Scarcity works because it makes people feel like they will lose their opportunity to act and choose if they don’t do so immediately. The threat of such loss creates urgency in our decision making. Have you ever noticed how people tend to be more motivated when faced with potentially losing something than when they might take steps of their own accord and gain something of equal value? Studies have verified that this is a common and consistent phenomenon. For example, do you think homeowners would feel more urgency to act if they were told how much money they were going to lose if they didn’t improve their insulation, or if they were told how much money they would save? They are more likely to act if they are told about their potential loss.
The mental trigger of potential loss causes such great anxiety in people that they act to prevent the loss—even though they likely are not really interested in the product itself. Imagine making a decision where you have all day to make up your mind and you have the reassurance that when you return tomorrow, the item will still be available at the same good price. You could take days to make that decision.
However, when scarcity enters the picture and you feel that the availability of the product, the timing, or even the price is bound to change without notice, the mental trigger of scarcity begins to operate. You are driven to acquire something to alleviate the threat of potential loss. That’s why shoe salespeople always bring you back the last pair of shoes available in your size at the sale price—which ends today. What we can’t have is always more desirable and exciting than what we already possess. As the adage says, ‘‘The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.’’ Any parent knows the result of telling a child she can’t have or do something. The child will immediately drop everything and want the one thing she can’t have. Look at Romeo and Juliet. The forbidden nature of their relationship made it even stronger and more appealing to them. Parents need to be cautioned about forbidding their child’s friends and lovers because the Law of Scarcity will come back to haunt them. The Law of Scarcity works even when the desired object or thing isn’t going to really benefit the recipient.
Maximum Influence: The 12 Universal Laws of Power Persuasion by Kurt W. Mortensen
