In this class, we will learn about the psychological “tricks” and biases that stores and advertisements use to get/trick people to buy. 

Students will learn to analyze advertisements, offers, commercials, and in-store displays designed to get people to spend and/or over-spend. These include limited time offers, loss leaders, scarcity, urgency, and more, including:

- How (grocery) stores and malls get you to stick around and buy more
- Pricing Tricks (why “$14.99 with free shipping” outsells “$9.99 with $5 shipping”)
- Bias & Heuristic Tricks (why “only 2 spaces left” and “24-hour flash sales” work so well)
- Why and how sales lead people to buy things they don’t need “as a future gift” or “just in case”
- Why people are more satisfied with their purchase (and less likely to return it) if it was "on sale"

Students will become better buyers, and will learn a lot about consumer behavior, marketing, cognitive biases, and psychology. They will ultimately gain the tools to defend themselves against the endless barrage of marketing tricks that use their own brains against them.