anothermachine: it's not just that numbers ending in nine "look smaller," as you put it. My understanding is that the 'number 9 signaling effect' works even wh

anothermachine: it's not just that numbers ending in nine "look smaller," as you put it. My understanding is that the 'number 9 signaling effect' works even when the price is higher. In other words, if a store prices the same item at (say) $9.81 for one week and then at $9.99 the subsequent week, the store sells more of the item on the second week (all else being equal). As the Atlantic article explains it, our brains have been conditioned to equate prices ending in 9 with "this is discounted," even when it isn't.