The Psychology of Numbers

While I normally rely on numbers for factual information, sometimes I look at them with suspicion.

The latest grocery store ad is riddled with prices that end in 99. That's no mistake. It's a sly move by the food sellers to make their prices appear lower. Lots of retailers do this because they want the number before the 99 to attract attention. It's the highest price they can set without going up to the next dollar. Once they go up to that next dollar, the item appears to be more expensive.

Flight times, on the other hand, are exact. Of course, this makes it look like the plane will take off or land at the specified time. I think the airlines are rounding up the on-time estimates. If it says a flight is 70 percent on time, I'm guessing it's more like 66 percent.

One number nobody wants to round up is the scale readout. Did you ever go for a checkup at a doctor's office and see a sign warning patients of higher numbers on the office scale than on a home scale? That's like saying, "You can just ignore that home scale, because it's lying to you. You weigh more than it says you do." The number on the office scale doesn't look good, even if it ends in a nine.