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Surprising Science

Our Irrational Loyalties

“Pain makes us loyal, and the surest way to improve the performance of a product is to raise its price.” The Frontal Cortex on our irrational devotion to the things that vex us most.
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“It turns out that the more we pay for something—and the payment can take the form of money, time or physical pain, as with the filling of a cavity—we’re more likely to believe that the product or service is effective, and thus worth the cost. It’s perverse but true: pain makes us loyal, and the surest way to improve the performance of a product is to raise its price. … A painful surgery is like an expensive energy drink. We assume the intervention was effective because it would be too distressing to believe otherwise. Because if our dentist made a mistaken diagnosis then the pain was wasted: we endured the drill for no reason at all.”

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