Hedonic Editing

It’s when we narrate events in a way that makes us feel happier. We therefore tend to combine losses with larger gains (to reduce pain) or separate gains into smaller parts (to increase pleasure).

NoteExamples

Broken screen

A person feels less upset about losing €20 on fixing the broken screen of their mobile phone when they remember that they saved €50 when buying it. By mentally combining the loss with the earliest gain, the net outcome feels positive, which reduces the emotional impact of the loss.

“Damn, I broke my screen. Thankfully I bought it at a discount, so I’m still winning”.

Split rewards at checkout

Super-markets deliberately break down rewards into multiple different instances, such as shelf discounts and separate cash back offered at the till, so that costumers feel that they get more rewards instead of one.

“You’ve got a 5€ loyalty card discount here, would you like to use it?”.

Also relates to: Mental Accounting · Loss Aversion · Reference Dependence · Choice Bracketing