Given three options, people disproportionately choose the middle one, so the extremes shape the choice they do not win.
Simonson's 1989 finding. Adding an expensive third option shifts sales to the middle, which is why menus and pricing tiers are built with an option nobody is expected to buy.
In practice
- A consultancy quotes £120,000, £45,000 and £22,000 for the same problem, and the £45,000 option is what the pricing was designed to sell.
- A wine list with one very expensive bottle sells more of the second-most-expensive.