Reading this before you shop can help you save: a psychological trick to stand up to salespeople

A lot of people I know have trouble saying no to salespeople. Lacking confidence, they end up buying extended warranties and magazine subscriptions that they never use.

I came across an interesting trick that can help turn the tides.

But before I explain it, I want your help in settling a bet with a friend.

The bet with my friend

What follows is a list of 10 words whose letters are scrambled up. Your job is to unscramble the words as quickly as you can.

Please get out a stopwatch, or use this handy online stopwatch.

Ready? Begin now and please time yourself.

Words to unscramble

1. ggeamrot
2. nkba
3. loradl
4. tinretse
5. erdtci
6. enyom
7. gsaniv
8. menirretet
9. khecc
10. talwle

Are you finished?

The answers appear at the end of this post.

Please submit your time to the following poll.

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The trick to stand up to salespeople

For those of you that completed the word scramble, congrats. You have unknowingly done the trick to stand up to salespeople.

I know it sounds weird that word scrambles could have any effect on shopping, so let me explain.

In the past few years, there has been work into the psychology of spending. One line of work has looked at how people who are thinking about money shop differently. One theory is that thinking about money makes someone feel more independent and resistant to sales recommendations.

In a recent study, college students underwent an experiment to put the idea to the test. The participants were asked to make a hypothetical decision about the school’s computer software. But before they did, they were told to participate in an unrelated study about word scrambles.

Half of the group were given normal vocabulary words, while the other half got words related to money. The idea is doing a word scramble about money will prime a participant before making the purchasing decision.

To simulate the effect of a salesperson, the experiment had an authority figure come into the room and recommend a particular computer software (the software choices were fairly equivalent, one was slightly faster, the other slighly more reliable).

The results showed the effect of thinking about money. The students who did the normal word scramble were often likely to follow the recommendation.

In contrast, the participants who were primed with money phrases did exactly the opposite: they tended to reject the recommendation and buy the choice that was not suggested.

In other words, people who were thinking about money would seem more likely to reject a salesperson’s pitch.

The researchers found similar results in two other experiments. Per the study abstract:

Across three experiments, money-primed participants behaved opposite to the source of influence, displaying reactance stemming from heightened feelings of threat. … Hence, reminders of money boost the motivation to be autonomous and sensitize consumers to potential constraints on their personal decision-making freedom

As with other behavioral studies, more work is needed to understand the effect.

But for now, next time you are out shopping, you might want to bring along a money article, do a word scramble about money, or look at a picture of cash before you talk to a salesperson. You will probably be more confident and able to reject their pitch.

Reference: Jia (Elke) Liu, Dirk Smeesters, and Kathleen D. Vohs. “Reminders of Money Elicit Feelings of Threat and Reactance in Response to Social Influence.” Journal of Consumer Research (published online July 14, 2011)

JSTOR link: http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1086/661553

Answers to word scramble:

1. ggeamrot – mortgage
2. nkba – bank
3. loradl – dollar
4. tinretse – interest
5. erdtci – credit
6. enyom – money
7. gsaniv – saving
8. menirretet – retirement
9. khecc – check
10. talwle -wallet