190-1-852
THESE are thrilling days for behavioural research. Every week seems to yield a new discovery about how bad people are at making decisions. Humans, it turns out, are impressionable, emotional and irrational. We buy things we don’t need, often at arbitrary prices and for silly reasons. Studies show that when a store plays soothing music, shoppers will linger for longer and often spend more. If customers are in a good mood, they are more susceptible to persuasion. We believe price tends to indicate the value of things, not the other way around. And many people will squander valuable time to get something free.
The sudden ubiquity of this research has rendered Homo economicus a straw man. Yet such observations are not new. Analysts have been studying modern man’s dumb instincts for ages. Sigmund Freud argued that people are governed by irrational, unconscious urges over a century ago. And in America in the 1930s another Viennese psychologist named Ernest Dichter spun this insight into a million-dollar business. His genius was in seeing the opportunity that irrational buying offered for smart selling.
“You would be amazed to find how often we mislead ourselves, regardless of how smart we think we are, when we attempt to explain why we are behaving the way we do,” Dichter observed in 1960, in his book “The Strategy of Desire”. He held that marketplace decisions are driven by emotions and subconscious whims and fears, and often have little to do with the product itself. Trained as a psychoanalyst, Dichter saw human motivation as an “iceberg”, with two-thirds hidden from view, even to the decision-maker. “What people actually spend their money on in most instances are psychological differences, illusory brand images,” he explained.

A. 어휘
Retail 小賣(소매). therapy 요법, 치료. behavioural 행동의.
yield 생산하다. impressionable 영향을 받기 쉬운, 감동하기 쉬운.
irrational 불합리한. arbitrary 멋대로인, 변덕스러운, 恣意的(자의적)인.
silly 바보 같은. soothing 위로하는, 누그러뜨리는. linger 머물다.
susceptible 감명되기 쉬운, 영향을 받기 쉬운, 민감한. persuasion 설득.
the other way around 반대로. squander 낭비하다.
ubiquity 遍在(편재). render 만들다, 되게 하다, 주다.
straw man 허수아비 인간, 하찮은 사람, 僞證者(위증자).
dumb 소리 없는, 벙어리의, 멍청한. instincts 본능.
govern 통치하다. urges 충동. spin-spun-spun 돌리다, 실을 잣다, 만들다.
genius 천재성. amaze 놀라게 하다. regardless of ...와 관계없이.
Strategy 전략. subconscious 무의식적인. whims 변덕.
have little to do with ...와 거의 관계가 없다. psychoanalyst 정신분석학자.
motivation 동기부여, 자극. instances 實例(실례).
illusory 架空(가공), 실체가 없는, 眩惑(현혹)시키는.