Those yellow LiveStrong bracelets are a great example. They’re about $1 or so, and purchasers wear them around all day advertising that they care about cancer. How many of those people would have donated an equivalent amount (just a buck) without the badge of caring they get to wear around?
Actually, in my experience it’s the other way round—people feel they’re doing their bit just by wearing the bracelets, so they’ll pay less for a bracelet than they’d donate anonymously.
But like most anecdotes, that one story doesn’t tell you anything—we need statistics if we want to truly know how people behave.
Those yellow LiveStrong bracelets are a great example. They’re about $1 or so, and purchasers wear them around all day advertising that they care about cancer. How many of those people would have donated an equivalent amount (just a buck) without the badge of caring they get to wear around?
Actually, in my experience it’s the other way round—people feel they’re doing their bit just by wearing the bracelets, so they’ll pay less for a bracelet than they’d donate anonymously.
But like most anecdotes, that one story doesn’t tell you anything—we need statistics if we want to truly know how people behave.