the fact that the news carrying the scarcity of information was itself
scarce made it especially persuasive.^13
OPTIMAL CONDITIONS
Much like the other effective weapons of influence, the scarcity principle
is more effective at some times than at other times. An important prac-
tical problem, then, is to find out when scarcity works best on us. A
great deal can be learned in this regard from an experiment devised by
social psychologist Stephen Worchel.^14 The basic procedure used by
Worchel and his research team was simple: Participants in a consumer-
preference study were given a chocolate-chip cookie from a jar and
asked to taste and rate its quality. For half of the raters, the jar contained
ten cookies; for the other half, it contained just two. As we might expect
from the scarcity principle, when the cookie was one of the only two
available, it was rated more favorably than when it was one of ten. The
cookie in short supply was rated as more desirable to eat in the future,
more attractive as a consumer item, and more costly than the identical
cookie in abundant supply.
Although this pattern of results provides a rather striking validation
of the scarcity principle, it doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already
know. Once again, we see that a less-available item is more desired and
valued. The real worth of the cookie study comes from two additional
findings. Let’s take them one at a time, as each deserves a thorough
consideration.
The first of these noteworthy results involved a small variation in
the experiment’s basic procedure. Rather than rating the cookies under
conditions of constant scarcity, some participants were first given a jar
of ten cookies that was then replaced by a jar of two cookies. Thus, be-
fore taking a bite, certain of the participants saw their abundant supply
of cookies reduced to a scarce supply. Other participants, however,
knew only scarcity of supply from the outset, since the number of
cookies in their jars was left at two. With this procedure, the researchers
were seeking to answer a question about types of scarcity: Do we value
more those things that have recently become less available to us, or
those things that have always been scarce? In the cookie experiment,
the answer was plain. The drop from abundance to scarcity produced
a decidedly more positive reaction to the cookies than did constant
scarcity.
The idea that newly experienced scarcity is the more powerful kind
applies to situations well beyond the bounds of the cookie study. For
example, social scientists have determined that such scarcity is a primary
Robert B. Cialdini Ph.D / 193