A few weeks ago, I came across a Reddit post which was about the first ever measurement of Mount Everest. Instead of listing the exact measurement as 29,000 feet, Britain’s Royal Geographical Society declared the elevation of Mount Everest to be 29,002 feet. It’s one of those facts that seems fake, but there’s some good in it trial which is true.
Clearly, surveyors felt that rounded numbers seemed less credible. They thought 29,000 feet seemed too vague to be accurate. Turns out this is something numerous studies have shown since.
Can you save 17 cents?
In a 1994 study published in Journal of Applied Social PsychologyResearchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Michael D. Santos, Craig Leve and Anthony R. Pratkanis, sought to test the piqué technique, which suggests that people are more likely to agree or comply with a request if “mindless refusal” is interrupted by a strange or unusual request. They asked three actresses to approach 289 adults over several days.
Each actor was instructed to ask passers-by for change. But there was a turning point. Half were asked, “Can you save 17¢ (or 37¢)?” The other half was asked, “Can you spare a quarter (or some change)?”
What they found was that asking people to save a specific amount made them do so more likely to donate the rest compared to the general request. Nineteen years later, five different researchers tested the same theory again.
Can you spare 37 seconds?
The 1994 study showed that specific numbers work with money, but would they work with time? In 2015, Nicolas Guéguen, professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Southern Brittany in France, he re-examined the piquet technique with a different type of request.
For this experiment, the researchers recruited four actresses, dressed identically in black, to ask passersby to complete a survey. A total of three hundred passers-by were interviewed (150 men and 150 women).
However, 150 were asked: “I wonder if you did some time save money to take a survey. The other 150 were asked: “I wonder if you did 37 seconds save money to take a survey.
Of the 150 people who asked to save some time, only 63 agreed. Of the 150 people who were asked to give 37 seconds, 90 agreed. A specific request increased compliance by 42.9%.
What’s going on here? Well, we have a natural tendency to assume that rounded numbers are made up. The lack of precision leads us to believe that the number is less reliable.
This won’t just impact donation requests and survey attempts. The same effect is visible in four-digit trades.
Would you accept $2,135?
In 2013, four researchers published a paper on Journal of Experimental Social Psychology on precise offers.
Hundreds of participants in one of the studies summarized were asked to negotiate the hypothetical sale of a used car. Half of the buyers were told to start the sale with a rounded price of $2,000. The other half were told to use a precise price of $1,865 or $2,135.
The researchers wanted to see whether more specific starting prices would influence the amount sellers tried to bargain.
It turns out that when buyers opened with an accurate asking price ($1,865 or $2,135), sellers responded with smaller adjustments than when they received a rounded price ($2,000). Using precise numbers made car prices seem more justified, leading to higher final selling prices.
Rounded numbers seem less credible. Specific numbers seem reliable. So when someone asks for 17 cents, we think they must have a good reason. When someone asks for 37 seconds, we think, “This really won’t take long.” And when Everest is measured at 29,002, we think that’s about right!
I spoke to the godfather of influence, Robert Cialdini, about the precise numerical effect on Nudge, listen to the discussion here
We believe in precise numbers.
Marketers can round numbers to appear cleaner and more refined. But accuracy is what really earns trust. Specific numbers tell customers that a complaint is from something real. Someone took the time to measure, so we should trust the results.
So, rely on precise numbers. If Mount Everest is 29,002 feet tall, use two feet.
