The easy addendum effect: When doing more seems less effortful.

Although people often value the challenge and mastery of performing an activity, their satisfaction may suffer when the tasks comprising the activity are perceived as difficult. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that influence subjective judgments of difficulty. In this research, we introduce an easily actionable and effective tactic to reduce perceptions of the overall difficulty of an activity: We find that concluding a sequence of difficult tasks with a few easy tasks can decrease perceived difficulty of the aggregate activity. While appending extra tasks to a constant sequence should increase the objective amount of effort necessary to complete all the tasks, we find that more tasks can paradoxically be perceived as less effortful. We coin this phenomenon the easy addendum effect and demonstrate that it is less likely to occur when an overall activity is conceptualized as consisting of a single category rather than two distinct categories-that is, a set of difficult tasks followed by a set of easy tasks. We further show downstream consequences of this effect-through lower perceived difficulty, the easy addendum effect can lead to greater satisfaction, persistence, and more tasks performed overall. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The cure effect: Individuals demand universal access for health treatments that claim to eliminate disease symptoms.

The present research documents a cure effect, whereby individuals are more likely to demand affordable prices when health treatments (e.g., drugs, medications, therapies) claim to eliminate (vs. reduce) disease symptoms. This preference for low-priced "cures" contradicts the fundamental premise of value-based pricing, which would expect individuals to tolerate higher prices for cures because they are putatively more effective and therefore more valuable. Five studies with over 2,500 participants provide robust evidence for the cure effect and show that it occurs because individuals judge a health treatment's acceptable price by focusing predominantly on its communal value rather than its market value. Given that cures are associated with maximal effectiveness, they are disproportionately endowed with communal value and more likely to yield price judgments that reflect concerns about universal access. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Anxiety, Cognitive Availability, and the Talisman Effect of Insurance.

Across four experiments (N = 1,923), this research provides converging evidence of a talisman effect of insurance-consumers who have an insurance policy feel that the covered mishap is less likely to occur. Although such an effect has previously been proposed, empirical evidence for it is limited, in part because the talisman effect has often been conflated with a related but distinct magical-thinking phenomenon, the tempting-fate effect. By disentangling these two effects, we are better able to isolate the talisman effect and show that it is a robust phenomenon in its own right. We also provide support for a mechanism underlying the talisman effect: Insurance reduces anxiety and repetitious thoughts related to the mishap; with fewer thoughts about the mishap, its cognitive availability is lower and so it seems less likely to occur.

The commission effect: Framing affects perceived magnitude of identical payouts.

In addition to their salaries, employees often receive additional variable compensation (i.e., payouts) based on the sales they generate or manage. For any single transaction, the same payout (e.g., $1,000) may be earned by a relatively high commission rate and a low sales amount (e.g., 10% commission rate on a $10,000 sale) or a relatively low commission rate and a high sales amount (e.g., 1% commission rate on a $100,000 sale). In this research, we show that individuals-including those working in sales roles and familiar with commission plans-perceive the magnitude of the same payout as larger (smaller) if it stems from a high (low) commission rate and a low (high) sales amount. Across 10 experiments with 3,484 participants, we demonstrate the robustness of this "commission effect" in a varied set of employee and consumer contexts, and we identify behavioral consequences of this bias. We also provide evidence that the effect occurs because commission rates are expressed in percentages and are therefore relatively more evaluable than sales amounts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).