The phenomenon is called anchoring[1], and it works like this: the first price we see anchors our thinking about additional information. This is why furniture stores have a perpetual sale.<p>&quot;Oh look, this $2500 sofa is only $1899.99 right now. What a great deal!&quot;<p>One experiment had respondents use the last two digits of their social security number as the initial price for a bottle of wine or other good. This completely-arbitrary price had a strong correlation with the price they were willing to pay for the item.<p>The effect is described in greater detail in <i>Thinking, Fast and Slow</i>[3]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Anchoring" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Anchoring</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.inc.com&#x2F;the-build-network&#x2F;the-anchoring-effect.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.inc.com&#x2F;the-build-network&#x2F;the-anchoring-effect.ht...</a><p>[3] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman&#x2F;dp&#x2F;0374533555" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman&#x2F;dp&#x2F;...</a>