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Surprising Science

Our Irrational Loyalties

"Pain makes us loyal, and the surest way to improve the performance of a product is to raise its price." The Frontal Cortex on our irrational devotion to the things that vex us most.

“It turns out that the more we pay for something—and the payment can take the form of money, time or physical pain, as with the filling of a cavity—we’re more likely to believe that the product or service is effective, and thus worth the cost. It’s perverse but true: pain makes us loyal, and the surest way to improve the performance of a product is to raise its price. … A painful surgery is like an expensive energy drink. We assume the intervention was effective because it would be too distressing to believe otherwise. Because if our dentist made a mistaken diagnosis then the pain was wasted: we endured the drill for no reason at all.”


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