Death reminders more than triple willingness to buy strong alcohol.
Evidence
When people received the flyers about pain or death and were subsequently offered the nonalcoholic drink, sales were about the same in both cases. There was, however, a whopping difference when booze was on the menu. This time, more than one third of the people who received the flyer about death bought a Caipirinha, compared to less than one tenth of the folks who received the flyer about back pain. Being “comfortably numb” from drugs and alcohol is a great way to banish death thoughts from consciousness, but not so great for staying healthy and alive. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 655
Categorization
- SHARE: Concrete experimental result — a death-themed flyer tripled Caipirinha purchases while a pain flyer did nothing — that would delight someone into behavioral economics or mortality research.
Related
- Mortality reminders increase desire for high-status luxury goods. (similarity 0.79)
- Adults respond to death reminders with mundane distraction and consumption (similarity 0.79)
- Death reminders intensify nicotine intake in highly addicted smokers (similarity 0.78)