Behavioral Economics with Fexingo: Decision Making, Bias, and How People Really Spend

In this episode of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the 'temptation bundling' effect — why combining a guilty pleasure with a productive task makes us more likely to stick with the task. They use the real-world case of Audible's free trial: how offering a free audiobook (the pleasure) bundled with a subscription commitment (the productive habit) led to a 30% increase in pa...

Why do we pay more for a bottle of wine with a handwritten label than an identical bottle with a printed one? In this episode of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the storytelling premium — the psychological effect where a compelling narrative adds perceived value to a product. They break down a 2023 study where participants paid 40% more for a generic chocolate bar when it...

Why do we ask more to sell a coffee mug than we'd pay to buy it? In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the endowment effect—the behavioral bias that makes us value what we own more than identical objects we don't. They break down the classic 1990 Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler mug experiment, where half the students given a mug demanded roughly double what the other half offered to buy it. They d...

We explore the psychology behind subscription services you forget to cancel. Lucas and Luna examine how companies use a combination of inertia, the default effect, and a phenomenon called the 'subscription trap' to keep millions of dollars flowing in from unused accounts. The episode centers on a 2025 survey from the consumer finance site WalletHub, which found that the average American spends $21...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the decoupling effect — the psychological gap that makes spending feel less painful when we use credit cards instead of cash. They break down a classic 2001 study by Drazen Prelec and Duncan Simester, which found that NBA fans were willing to bid more than double for tickets when paying by card versus cash. The hosts connect this to modern payment apps like...

In this episode of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, hosts Lucas and Luna dive into the Default Effect — the powerful cognitive bias that makes us stick with pre-set options, even when switching would be better. Discover the real-world impact through the story of organ donation rates in European countries: why Austria has nearly 100 percent participation while Germany hovers around 12 percent, an...

Lucas and Luna explore the social comparison bias — why we instinctively measure ourselves against idealized images and curated success. They break down a 2023 study from the Journal of Consumer Research showing that exposure to aspirational stock photography makes people feel less satisfied with their own financial progress, even when they know the images are staged. The episode examines how this...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the mere-exposure effect and why your brain defaults to trusting familiar brands, voices, and even faces—often overriding hard data. They break down the classic Zajonc study from the 1960s, where participants rated random Chinese characters more favorably simply after repeated exposure, and connect it to modern marketing: why you're more likely to buy a bran...

Why does buying a new sofa often lead to new curtains, a new rug, and eventually a whole new living room? This episode of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo explores the Diderot Effect — named after the 18th-century French philosopher who described the phenomenon after receiving a stylish new dressing gown. Lucas and Luna unpack how a single purchase can trigger a spiral of consumption, drawing on...

In Episode 21 of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the Pratfall Effect — the counterintuitive finding that competent people and brands become more likable after a minor mistake. They anchor on a 1966 experiment by Elliot Aronson where a quiz-show expert who spilled coffee was rated more attractive than one who didn't. From there, they trace the effect through modern example...

In this episode of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the halo effect, a cognitive bias where a single positive impression in one area—like attractiveness or confidence—colors our entire judgment of a person or product. They anchor the discussion in a 2025 study from Wharton showing that job candidates with a firm handshake were rated 12% more competent overall, even though...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the mere-exposure effect through a real 2024 study on financial advice. When test subjects heard investment tips from a synthetic voice that matched their own accent, they rated the advice as 23 percent more trustworthy — even though the content was identical. The hosts connect this to a 2023 experiment at a German bank where customers were 14 percent more l...

Ever felt certain a recession is coming because you just saw three news articles about layoffs? That's the availability heuristic at work — your brain confusing how easy something is to recall with how likely it actually is. In this episode of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna unpack the bias that distorts risk perception, from stock market panic to vaccine hesitancy. They walk thr...

Episode 17 of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo explores the paradox of choice — when more options actually make us less happy and less likely to choose at all. Lucas and Luna break down the famous jam study from 2000, where shoppers faced 24 jams vs. 6 jams, and examine why a 401(k) with 50 funds can paralyze participants. They discuss psychologist Barry Schwartz's work on maximizers vs. satisfic...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the concept of relative deprivation — the feeling that you're worse off compared to those around you, even if you're objectively doing well. They dig into the famous 1970s study of British soldiers and how it explains why a rising tide doesn't lift all boats equally. The hosts discuss how social comparison, amplified by social media, can distort our sense of...

Lucas and Luna explore the spotlight effect — our tendency to believe we are being noticed far more than we actually are. Drawing on the classic Cornell experiment where students wore embarrassing Barry Manilow T-shirts and dramatically overestimated how many people noticed, they trace how this bias distorts everything from public speaking anxiety to fashion choices to workplace silence. They disc...

Lucas and Luna explore the Ikea effect, a cognitive bias where people place disproportionately high value on products they partially created themselves. Using the example of Ikea furniture assembly, they explain why your wobbly bookshelf feels more valuable than a perfectly built one from a store. They discuss real-world applications: why instant cake mixes failed until they required adding an egg...

Episode 13 of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo dives into loss aversion, the cognitive bias that makes losses feel roughly twice as painful as equivalent gains feel pleasurable. Lucas and Luna unpack the classic 1992 Kahneman and Tversky study where participants refused a coin-flip bet unless the potential win was at least double the potential loss — revealing the 2-to-1 ratio baked into our wiri...

In this episode of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the concept of social proof — how people copy the behavior of others in uncertain situations. They dive into the classic 1969 study by Stanley Milgram and Leonard Bickman, where a single person looking up at a building caused 80% of passersby to stop and stare. Then they shift to a modern business case: the 2015 story of...

Why do we consistently pick a smaller reward today over a larger one tomorrow? In episode 11 of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore hyperbolic discounting — the cognitive bias that makes future rewards feel less valuable the closer we get to the present. Using the classic marshmallow test and a 2023 study on procrastination and financial planning, they break down how this bia...

Episode 10 of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo dives into the hindsight bias, the mental trick that makes past events feel inevitable and your future predictions feel more accurate than they are. Lucas and Luna unpack the 1975 Baruch Fischhoff experiment where students retroactively raised their probability estimates after being told the outcome, and connect it to real-world investing, political...

In this episode of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the anchoring effect—how an arbitrary number influences decisions from salary negotiations to charitable giving. Using the classic California license plate study and real-world examples like used car prices and the $2.5 billion Renco Group copper mine investment, they reveal why first numbers stick in our brains. Learn ho...

Why does a 95 percent survival rate feel totally different from a 5 percent mortality rate, even though they mean the same thing? In episode 8 of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna unpack the framing effect—one of the most powerful and least noticed biases in everyday decision-making. Using the original Tversky and Kahneman Asian disease problem, plus real-world examples from surger...

Why do we keep watching terrible movies, stay in bad relationships, and hold losing stocks? It's the sunk cost fallacy — our brain's inability to ignore irrecoverable time and money. In this episode of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dissect a classic case from New Coke's 1985 launch, where Coca-Cola ignored early taste-test red flags because they had already spent millions. Then...

Lucas and Luna unpack the status quo bias — our irrational preference for things to stay the same. Using real-world examples like organ donation opt-in rates in Germany versus Austria, the QWERTY keyboard's persistence, and why Netflix's 2011 price hike cost them 800,000 subscribers, they explore how inertia shapes everything from your 401(k) enrollment to your streaming queue. Plus: the 2017 stud...