persuasion
Decoy effect
What is the decoy effect?
The decoy effect is when adding a third, deliberately worse option changes which of the other two you choose. The decoy is never meant to be picked - it is there to make one of its neighbours look like the obvious deal.
Also known as: asymmetric dominance effect, attraction effect, decoy pricing
The demo
The same two plans at the same prices. Add the decoy and watch the bundle stop looking expensive and start looking like the obvious pick - though its price never moves.
Digital
£59/year
- Website & app
- Weekly print edition
Print only
£125/year
- Website & app
- Weekly print edition
Best value
Print + Digital
£125/year
- Website & app
- Weekly print edition
Two plans, no decoy. The bundle costs more than twice the digital plan - so most people take Digital and move on.
What this demo shows (text version)
Two subscription plans are shown: Digital at £59 a year, and a Print + Digital bundle at £125 a year. With only these two, the bundle looks expensive next to the digital-only plan, so most people choose Digital.
Switching on the decoy adds a third plan - Print only, also £125 a year. It costs the same as the bundle but gives less (no website or app), so it is plainly the worse deal. Its only job is comparison: against it, the £125 bundle is obviously dominant, and the bundle suddenly looks like the sensible choice rather than the dear one. No price changed - the extra option simply reframed the bundle. That is the decoy effect, working through asymmetric dominance.
With two plans, the bundle looked dear and you leaned towards digital. Add a print-only plan at the same price as the bundle - plainly worse - and the bundle suddenly reads as a steal. Nothing about it changed. The decoy just handed you an easy comparison to win, and your eye took it.
The trick is "asymmetric dominance": the decoy is clearly beaten by one option (the target) but not by the other, so you settle on the easy winner instead of the harder digital-versus-bundle judgement. Take the decoy away and the hard comparison comes straight back - which is how you know the third option was doing more work than it looked.
You meet it everywhere once you see it: the medium popcorn that exists so the large feels sensible, the middle pricing tier built to be passed over, the "good / better / best" table arranged so "better" always wins. My habit is that when three options appear and one seems pointless, I ask who it is really there to sell.