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A TV-presenter of a fairly popular TV-show with an audience in my country once told an anecdote that they wanted the admission for the audience to be free. But
by jaapz 5mo ago
A TV-presenter of a fairly popular TV-show with an audience in my country once told an anecdote that they wanted the admission for the audience to be free. But when the tickets were free, a lot less people showed up. When they changed the ticket to be the quite arbitrary amount of 7 EUR, suddenly the theater was full every time.
- renticulous 5mo agoContext is king. A famous cello player playing on streets is valued less and is valued more when playing in a stadium. This is the typical framing phenomenon which psychology has discovered about humans. Even what colour we perceive changes based on surrounding context so not surprising.
- globular-toast 5mo agoWe naturally go for scarce things first. A few examples of this: - I'm not particularly into castles, but I've visited a fair few while travelling. I lived in Norwich for 10 years, home to one of the finest Norman castles in the country. Did I visit? Did I heck. - When your favourite film was on TV you'd watch it every time. Then when you got it on DVD you'd never watch it again. - Give a dog some miscellaneous leftovers and notice how they prioritise ingestion. Not sure it's really the same entitlement phenomenon the GP was talking about, though.
- sandbach 5mo agoThey've recently done up Norwich castle and it's better than ever. It's in the running for Museum of the Year!
- cassianoleal 5mo agoBack in my home town, we used to have free events all the time. Outdoor concerts, theatre, even indoor concerts and festivals. They were almost always full to the brim. Anecdotes are fun, but not much more than that.
- MyHonestOpinon 5mo agoIf the artist is someone already famous, the people will always show up. With a less famous artist price is perceived as a signal. So if it is free, people would think that the show is not worth bothering.
- cassianoleal 5mo agoI think there's a pretty big cultural bias driving assumptions in your position.
- andyjohnson0 5mo agoAnecdote: A long time ago I was helping a friend with her hand-made candles stall at a craft fair. A particular thpe of candle wasn't selling - so we talked about it and she reduced the price of each candle. But they still weren't selling. So we talked about it some more, and she priced them at 3x the original price. They all sold.
- predkambrij 5mo agoYeah. If it's free or cheap, people don't value the thing. It's something called "price sensitivity". Some things are expensive (luxury brands), and people want it for that reason alone (status symbol).
- eddy-sekorti 5mo agoYes, it is so true, people think free is junk and when they pay for something they automatically assign a value to it.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- technothrasher 5mo agoI've discovered this when trying to get rid of low value stuff. If I put it up for free, there's usually either no response or a bunch of "I'll take it" and then never showing up. But if I put some minimal price on it, it usually goes quickly.
- latexr 5mo ago> But when the tickets were free, a lot less people showed up. I can think of several reasons for that. It would be nice to know for sure which was the right one (or if there’s a combination). E.g. Maybe being free, people reserved the tickets but then didn’t show up. Or if you didn’t have to reserve, people only went on a whim. Or they always assumed they would all be reserved in advance so didn’t bother to try. I suspect that when you pay for an event you’re more likely to make a concerted effort to attend lest you “lose the money”.