competition, the blood comes up, the focus narrows, and emotions rise.
As this visceral current advances, the cognitive, rational side retreats.
In the rush of arousal, it is difficult to be calm and studied in our ap-
proach. As CBS Television’s president, Robert Wood, commented in
the wake of his Poseidon adventure, “You get caught up in the mania
of the thing, the acceleration of it. Logic goes right out the window.”
Here’s our predicament, then: Knowing the causes and workings of
scarcity pressures may not be sufficient to protect us from them because
knowing is a cognitive thing, and cognitive processes are suppressed
by our emotional reaction to scarcity. In fact, this may be the reason for
the great effectiveness of scarcity tactics. When they are employed
properly, our first line of defense against foolish behavior—a thoughtful
analysis of the situation—becomes less likely.
If, because of brain-clouding arousal, we can’t rely on our knowledge
about the scarcity principle to stimulate properly cautious behavior,
what can we use? Perhaps, in fine jujitsu style, we can use the arousal
itself as our prime cue. In this way we can turn the enemy’s strength
to our advantage. Rather than relying on a considered, cognitive ana-
lysis of the entire situation, we might simply tune ourselves to the in-
ternal, visceral sweep for our warning. By learning to flag the experience
of heightening arousal in a compliance situation, we can alert ourselves
to the possibility of scarcity tactics there and to the need for caution.
But suppose we accomplish this trick of using the rising tide of
arousal as a signal to calm ourselves and to proceed with care. What
then? Is there any other piece of information we can use to help make
a proper decision in the face of scarcity? After all, merely recognizing
that we ought to move carefully doesn’t tell us the direction in which
to move; it only provides the necessary context for a thoughtful decision.
Fortunately, there is information available on which we can base
thoughtful decisions about scarce items. It comes, once again, from the
chocolate-chip-cookie study, where the researchers uncovered something
that seems strange but rings true regarding scarcity: Even though the
scarce cookies were rated as significantly more desirable, they were not
rated as any better-tasting than the abundant cookies. So despite the
increased yearning that scarcity caused (the raters said they wanted to
have more of the scarce cookies in the future and would pay a greater
price for them), it did not make the cookies taste one whit better. Therein
lies an important insight. The joy is not in experiencing a scarce commod-
ity but in possessing it. It is important that we not confuse the two.
Whenever we confront the scarcity pressures surrounding some item,
we must also confront the question of what it is we want from the item.
If the answer is that we want the thing for the social, economic, or
psychological benefits of possessing something rare, then, fine; scarcity
200 / Influence