The Useful Part
Home Videos Categories Sources About Newsletter
Menu
Home Videos Categories Sources About Newsletter
Your browser cannot play this video. Download the MP4.
Business

The Fee Appears After You've Decided

1:05 · 2026-10-21

Drip pricing works through timing: when fees are added late in a checkout flow, the time, effort, and comparison already spent on choosing make the decision feel made before the full price is ever seen, so a total that…

The useful part

It won on timing.

Watch on

  • Instagram
  • Threads
  • TikTok
  • X
  • YouTube

Sources behind this episode

  • foundational psychology paper, third-party hosted copyThe Psychology of Sunk CostArkes, Hal R., and Catherine Blumer (1985), Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 35: 124-140
  • peer-reviewed lab market experimentDrip pricing and its regulation: Experimental evidenceRasch, Thöne, Wenzel (2020), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 176: 353-370
  • peer-reviewed field experimentPrice Salience and Product ChoiceBlake, Moshary, Sweeney, Tadelis (2021), Marketing Science 40(4): 619-636
  • peer-reviewed lab experiments, six studiesConsumer Reactions to Drip PricingSantana, Dallas, Morwitz (2020), Marketing Science, Consumer Protection special issue
  • official regulatory economic reportEconomic Analysis of Hotel Resort FeesSullivan, Mary W. (2017), FTC Bureau of Economics Economic Issues Paper, January 2017
  • official government review of a federal ruleFederal Trade Commission: Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive FeesU.S. Government Accountability Office, B-337257, March 25, 2025

More in Business

Protection Is a Second Purchase — video poster frame ▶ 1:07

Business

Protection Is a Second Purchase

An extended warranty offered at checkout is not an extension of the item you just chose; it is a separate product whose value depends on the price of the plan, what the terms actually cover, how likely the item is to fa…

Why Four Small Payments Feel Cheaper Than One — video poster frame ▶ 1:08

Business

Why Four Small Payments Feel Cheaper Than One

Partitioned pricing breaks one total into several smaller amounts, and because the pain of paying is felt per payment rather than per purchase, each small number registers as less painful, so the whole purchase feels li…

Why AI Agents Fail at the Seams — video poster frame ▶ 1:10

Business

Why AI Agents Fail at the Seams

Why AI Agents Fail at the Seams

The Useful Part

Mechanism, consequence, and a practical test — in one mobile minute.

Videos Categories Sources About Newsletter

© 2026 The Useful Part. Every episode delivers the whole idea — mechanism, consequence, and a practical test. No padded intros, no multipart cliffhangers.