Feebies leave us with pleasant feeling of happiness and it sticks to our brain to the extent that if we receive one freebie now, immediately, we start looking forward to the next freebie and the next and next without end.
So how did we get to this point we find freebies irresistible?Is it us or our brain or the freebie itself that makes people hunt for freebies?
What do you think is the correct answer. Pause for few seconds, think. You sure have an explanation (or not).
Let me share with you the secret why you and I love freebies and why wherever it goes, we follow (LOL!)
Comparing with our past experience
Now, this happens to me….Wonder when fall asleep with music blaring from your home theater and yet got woken from sleep on another night by single footstep!Single steps!
Now the answer to why you and I hunt for freebies is staring you in the face.
Our brain is not effectively sensitive to exact amount of stimulation when it receives information from both physical and subjective properties of any item BUT it is extraordinarily sensitive to changes in physical and subjective properties of any item, price inclusive. It suddenly wakes up when it receives stimulating information due to change in the info it earlier detected but didn’t like take very serious. Like a light bulb, it gets switched on by millions of powerful cells when the information changes, you are right!
Let me give you a practical example:If a wristwatch that goes for $100 is in our face, your brain is not by default particularly sensitive to the price but the moment the watch is now $0, your brain, in an extraordinary manner, immediately detects the change from $100 to $0 and suddenly jolted to action, akin to the detected difference in the volume of a blaring music and single footstep.
So we are biologically wired to significantly detect and respond to significant difference between what we would have paid for an item and the zero cost we incur for freebies.
This also explains why the more the difference between the original price of a freebie and $0, the more people know of and participate in such giveaway.
The higher the difference magnitude of their value, the more people such freebies attract.
Same reason why a freebie of a pencil will not attract as much people as much as a give away car or house.
So if you see yourself,like me, finding freebies irresistible. I have good news for you; you’re perfectly normal.
Comparing extremes
For humans, we are wired by default to view things generally from both extremes of a physical or subjective properties of any item/state of mind; its either you’re happy or sad, cold or warm, white or black.
PAID or FREE just happens to perfectly fit our expectations like other extremes. So if it’s not paid, then it is FREE so we move to the free; extreme opposite of paid.
In doing this, it takes us very little time to decide because our brain makes predictions incredibly quickly and about nearly everything in life including choosing freebie over paid one even before deciding if we need the item or not.
By default, we quickly cut out the details in between both extremes of paid and free to decide that the freebie is good enough to make us happy.
Free triumphs over paid not at the speed of thought but at what our brain is wired for.
Once free makes us happy then paying for it while aware that some people got same item for free will make us unhappy so to protect us from such happiness, we choose free because it will make us happy.
Maximum satisfaction from our resources
From my High school Economics textbook those days, I recall learning about assumptions made in Economics.
For me, out of all the 3 basic assumptions the Neo-classical economics works with, the one that I can reasonably use to explain why people hunt for freebies is “Individuals maximize utility (as consumers)” and in the estimation of people, the resources which include their time spent to know of the freebies, meet the criteria and eventually receive the freestuffs should be bring them maximum benefit; in this case,Not having to part with their hard-earned cash.
People’s expenditures don’t rise
Most people have difficulty managing their budget and a freebie is something that doesn’t cause them more pain because they don’t have to pay anything to get the freebies.
For me, this is my favorite reason for why people hunt for freebies.
It is free and even if they don’t need the freebie, it won’t cost me anything to have it and keep it until I need it.
These freebies, especially highly valuable ones can even raise the quality of your assets and make you credit worthy for some personal loans.
Sense of accomplishment
This is the feeling people get after they’ve achieved something great.
Winning a freebie especially at the expense of others in a contest or promotion can give a sense of accomplishment to the individual who got the freebie to the extent that the winner will tell others about it, be more confident of becoming knowledgeable about the contest and sometimes even write about it!
So generally, in this life, people often value things more after they own them than before,value things more when they are imminent than when they are distant by price and people often imagine that the pain of losing something is greater than the pleasure of getting it, especially for free!
Who doesn’t like an unexpected gift, freebie or giveaway?
Sincerely, I am yet to meet one.
Bonus Freebie:
