Pedar has been staring at the course cost for the past 15 minutes.
It’s €1,000.
Pedar has never spent that much on an online course.
He is struggling to justify this potential expenditure but he still really wants to take the course.
Pedar decides to avoid making a decision right now and goes to bed.
The next morning Pedar wakes up to an email from the course saying for a limited time only the course will be 50% off.
Pedar doesn’t remember exactly what happened next. It was kind of a blur. But he just knows that he signed up for the course.
So Pedar paid €500 for an online course. Which is probably ten times the second most expensive online course he signed up for.
Now I think there are two things that explain Pedar’s behaviour.
Firstly his expectation, Pedar was expecting to pay €1,000 for this course to then find out it would be halved made him ecstatic. Had it been the other way around (€1,000 -> €2,000) Pedar would definitely have been annoyed.
So Pedar is in a good mood, now for the second part. The scarcity! The fact that this amazing discount has an expiration date creates a fear of loss in Pedar. This fed an urgency to act. Which resulted in a course sign up.
Now Pedar is delighted because he gets to do the course he wants at a discounted price.
Thomas Duggan 