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You are careful with your money: you collect all kinds of coupons; look for group-buy deals if you dine out; you don't buy clothes unless in a sale. Does all this make you a shrewd consumer?
你花钱很谨慎：收集各类优惠券，外出就餐找团购，只有在打折时才买衣服。而所有这些真的使你成为一位精明的买家吗？
Let's do the math first: you walk into a coffee shop and see two deals for a cup of coffee. The first deal offers 33 percent extra coffee. The second takes 33 percent off the regular price. What's the better deal?
我们先来做道数学题：你走进一间咖啡店，看到咖啡有两种优惠方式。第一种是加量33%；第二种是降价33%。哪种方式更划算？
Well, they are about the same, you'd think. And you'd be wrong. The deals appear to be equivalent, but in fact, they are different.
好吧，你可能觉得两者没什么不同。那么你就错了。这两种优惠看似相同，但实际上却是完全不同。
Here's the math: Let's say the standard coffee is 10 yuan and let's divide the amount of coffee into three portions. That makes about 3.3 yuan per portion.
计算方式如下：让我们假设咖啡的标价为10元，我们把咖啡份量分成三份。平均每份价格约为3.3元。
The first deal gets you 4 portions for 10 yuan (2.5 yuan per portion) and the second gets you 3 portions of coffee for 6.6 yuan (2.2 yuan per portion) and is therefore a better deal.
通过第一种优惠方式，你花10元钱能买到4份，平均每份2.5元。第二种，你可以花6.6元买到三份，平均每份2.2元，因此第二种优惠更加划算。
In a new study published by the Journal of Marketing, participants were asked the same question, and most of them chose the first deal, the Atlantic website reported.
《大西洋月刊》网站报道称，在发表在《市场营销杂志》上的一项最新研究中，参与者们被问及上述同样的问题，他们之中的大多数人选择第一种优惠。
Why? Because getting something extra for free feels better than getting the same for less. The applications of this insight into consumer psychology are huge.
是何原因？因为与低价购买相同事物相比，免费获得额外加赠感觉更好。而这一见解也被广泛应用到消费者心理领域之中。
Instead of offering direct discounts, manufacturers or shops offer larger sizes or free samples.
厂商及店家们提供加量装或免费小样，而并非直接打折。
According to the study, the reason why these marketing tricks work is that consumers don't really know how much anything should cost, so we rely on parts of our brains that aren't strictly quantitative.
该研究显示，这些营销陷阱之所以奏效，原因就在于消费者实在搞不清商品的成本是多少，所以我们就依靠我们大脑中并不严格定量的部分来判断。
There are some pitfalls we should be aware of when shopping. First of all, we are heavily influenced by the first number.
购物时，我们要警惕一些陷阱。首先，我们深受第一眼数字的影响。
Suppose you are in Hong Kong on a shopping spree. You walk into Hermes, and you see a 100,000 yuan bag. “That's crazy.” You shake your head and leave.
假设你在香港血拼。当走进爱马仕店时，你看到一个标价十万人民币的包。“这太疯狂了。”你摇摇头，走开了。
The next shop is Gucci, a handbag here costs 25,000 yuan. The price is still steep, but compared to the 100,000 yuan price tag you just committed to your memory, this is a steal. Stores often use the gap in prices to set consumer's expectation.
接下来你来到古驰店，这里的一个手提包价值两万五千元。价格依旧令人咋舌，但比起你刚刚印在脑海中的那个十万元的价格标签，这实在是便宜。商店经常利用价格差来设定消费者的消费预期。
Another -prey we often fall to is that we are not really sure what things are worth. And so we use cues to tell us what we ought to pay for them.
另外一个让我们深受其害的陷阱是我们确实不知道商品值多少钱。所以我们利用一些暗示来告诉自己应该花多少钱。
US economist Dan Ariely has done an experiment to prove this. According to the Atlantic, Ariely pretended he was giving a poetry recital.
美国经济学家丹•阿雷利通过一项实验证明了这一点。据《大西洋月刊》报道称，阿雷利谎称自己将要举办诗歌朗诵会。
He told one group of students that the tickets cost money and another group that they would be paid to attend.
他告诉一组学生说门票是收费的，告诉另一组学生说参加活动是有报酬的。
Then he revealed to both groups that the recital was free. The first group was anxious to attend, believing they were getting something of value for free.
然后他再告诉两组人真相：朗诵会是免费的。第一组人便急于参加，深信他们免费获得了一些有价值的东西。
The second group mostly declined, believing they were being forced to volunteer for the same event without compensation.
而第二组人大部分都婉拒了，认为他们被迫为同一个事件志愿服务，却没有补偿。
What's a poetry recital by an economist worth? The students had no idea. That's the point. Do we really know what a shirt is worth? What about a cup of coffee? What's the worth of a life insurance policy? Who knows? Most of us don't.
一位经济学家的诗歌朗诵会价值几何呢？学生们并不清楚。这便是关键所在。我们真的知道一件衬衫的价值吗？那么一杯咖啡的价值呢？一张人寿保险单的价值是多少？谁知道？我们大多数人都会摇头。
As a result, our shopping brain uses only what is knowable: visual clues, triggered emotions, comparisons, and a sense of bargain versus rip-off. We are not stupid. We are just susceptible.
结果，我们的购物大脑只使用那些已知的事物：视觉线索、被激发的情绪、货比三家，以及便宜货VS宰人品的较量之感。我们不愚蠢，只是容易受到影响。
