Apple App Store: The Receipt to Make You Feel Guilty (mostly)
I was impressed a while back when I downloaded some free articles from David Allen’s Getting Things Done website. I was first pleased to find some quality info on GTD at an a price you have to love. To get the articles though, you have to put them into a shopping cart and go through the process as if you were buying them. And yet they were free. Why?
Recently I got the iTunes Store receipt for some applications I downloaded from their newly opened iPhone App Store, which is selling for the first time ever 3rd party applications which can run on the iPhone without voiding the phone’s warranty. They send you a receipt for all the applications you buy, but the receipt also includes ones that are free. Why would they do this? It’s not like I’m going to be able to take my App Store receipt to the local Apple store if I have a complaint about how one of the clever new applications isn’t quite working up to snuff.
Well the answer lies in the research done in the area of social psychology. When David Allen has you go through the shopping cart process and gives the the invoice for articles that were free or Apple sends you their iTunes Store receipt, they are banking on the psychological principle of reciprocity. In short, when we are given something we have a deep-seated human tendency to want to return the favor. Various cults used to capitalize on this back in the days when cult members at the airport would hand you a flower before asking you for a contribution. David Allen and Steve Jobs are smartly reminding you in writing that they’ve done you a favor. It’s your turn to do them a favor. The fact that they are doing this in writing makes it all the more powerful, but that is a topic for another post on influence.
Tweaking your reciprocity circuit is one of the lesser known reasons behind companies sending you free samples. Some of what they are shooting for is brand familiarity and experience with the virtues of their product, of course. But they are also banking on the ancient tendency our brains have to feel that there is an imbalance in your relationship with them, much like you would remember with your friends who last paid for a meal, or who had whom over for dinner last. So enjoy Apple’s App Store and their generously providing the conduit for free apps for your iPhone, and the free GTD articles from David Allen. But while you enjoy these goodies take a moment to ponder the wonders of our impulse to reciprocate a good turn. If you want to learn more, there is a summary of Robert Cialdini’s famous book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, which contains a nice outline of how reciprocity works (about half way down they page). The book is a nice quick read and will leave you more knowledgeable about everything from what principles are being used against you when buying a car, to dealing with door to door solicitors, to an inside scoop on how people in powerful positions wield their influence.
Where else have you noticed freebies used in the interest of stimulating your sense of reciprocity? Also has anyone else spotted this specific application, the invoice for free items, used elsewhere?
