We all know that perception plays an important role in our buying habits. For example, we’ve previously blogged about how the perception of prices makes people believe that expensive products are better. 
Now a new study suggests that you can be influenced to make a purchase just by the physical appearance of a person using the product.
According to Scientific American researchers studied over 300 shoppers and found that they were more likely to buy an item of clothing if they saw an attractive person trying it on first. If an average looking person tried on the clothing, the shoppers weren’t interested.
I guess this is just proof of what we’ve all known all along: “Sex Sells.” But this story really concerns me because this subtle brainwashing effect could have dramatic impact on the Right Brain’s chances of getting a job at Abercrombie. Oh no!
–Mid Brain
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s kind of sad that even though part of our brain knows we are being manipulated the OTHER part still succumbs to temptation. Any neuroscientists out there want to comment?
I don’t think you can call it brainwashing. Rather, it’s the result of our brains doing what cognitive science people call a “heuristic” – a quick method of calculating something.
The goal of selecting clothes is to find something that makes us look good, so if we see someone wearing an item of clothing that they look good in, we subconsciously calculate that it’s going to make us look good too.