How Much Is Eight Dollars? | Defector

""In a player's mind, what does it mean to spend five bucks? Well, that's five bucks. But six bucks? Well, that's still five bucks. "Four bucks is also kind of five bucks," he continued. "Three bucks is two bucks. And two bucks is basically free. "So we've got these tiers: You know, twelve bucks ... that's ten bucks. But thirteen bucks is fifteen bucks."

"Let us now assess the various assumptions on offer. Is six bucks five bucks? Yes. If I want to purchase a six-buck item and my wife asks me how much it costs, I can say, "It's like five bucks," without harming the foundations of our relationship. Is four bucks five bucks? Yes. If my child brings me some piece-of-crap impulse toy from the check-out line and it is four bucks, you can bet I will mutter, "Five bucks for this piece of crap.""

Developers applied a pricing theory that places $8 within consumers' mental category of $5, creating a perceived discount advantage. The theory maps spending tiers: amounts slightly above a round number often remain perceived as that round number (e.g., six or four dollars seen as 'five bucks'), small amounts collapse downward (three dollars perceived as two; two dollars treated as essentially free). Pricing at eight dollars captures a large perceived increase from five without crossing into the next mental tier, yielding an optimal perceived-value to price relationship. Everyday purchase examples are used to test these assumptions about labeling low-price items.

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