The Dangers of Comparison Shopping:
Canon or Nikon? Apple or PC? This or that? Does it really make that much difference? No, not as much as we predict.
Making comparisons between goods and services is supposed to get us a better deal but it doesn’t always work that way. That’s because of the weird way our brains make mountains out of molehills.
The potato chip study
Consider a study by Morewedge et al. (2010). Participants were asked to predict how much they would enjoy a potato chip. Half the participants were in a room that also happened to contain other superior snacks like a luxurious chocolate bar; others were in a room with inferior snacks, like sardines and spam.