9 sneaky psychology tricks companies use to get you to buy stuff

Matt Cardy / Getty Images

From Facebook ads to TV commercials, you're constantly being bombarded by people trying to sell you stuff.

And marketers may not be scientists, but they've mastered the art of using your psychology against you. By exploiting your vulnerability to different style of propaganda, companies can trick you into buying more stuff and paying more for it.

We've scoured the research on some of the strategies marketers use to lure in consumers, so you can catch them in their own game:

Priming

It's well-known in psychology that being exposed to one idea or concept can affect your response to another, related thing. For example, you're more likely to recognize a word like "tasty" after seeing a picture of a delicious meal than after a picture of a garbage dump. 

In a 2002 study, researchers measured how a webpage's background influenced consumers looking to buy a car. When the background was green with pennies on it, customers spent more time perusing the cost info, but when the background was red with flames, they spent more time looking at the safety section.

The decoy effect

Sometimes, a company will include an additional price option just to make you think you're getting a deal.

Duke professor of psychology and behavioral economics Dan Ariely did a study of a marketing strategy used by The Economist, as he described in a TED talk. The magazine offered three subscriptions: an online subscription for $59, a print subscription for $125, and a print-and-online subscription for $125.

When Ariely offered 100 students the three options, most students picked the online-print combo, since it seemed like the best deal. But when he took out the print-only option, most students picked the cheaper, online-only one.

The illusion of scarcity

People are more likely to desire things if they seem like scarce resources. 

In a classic study in 1975, researchers showed 200 people two identical cookie jars, except one had 10 cookies and the other had just two. Surprisingly, people rated the cookies in the empty jar as more valuable.

Today, airlines and other companies use the scarcity principle all the time (think "only a few tickets left at this price!").