Worked example 1
A restaurant adds a £45 premium steak (rarely ordered) to its menu, places a £28 pasta dish in the top-right corner with the description 'Hand-rolled pappardelle with slow-braised Tuscan ragù', and lists prices as '28' without the £ symbol. Pasta sales rise 35%. Explain using menu design psychology and evaluate whether this is ethical.
Show solution outline
Apply — decoy/anchoring: The £45 steak acts as an anchor — makes £28 pasta appear reasonable by comparison (Tversky & Kahneman anchoring, 2.3.3). Customers rarely order the decoy but it reshapes reference price.
Apply — golden triangle: Top-right placement exploits natural eye-scanning patterns — pasta receives disproportionate attention.
Apply — descriptive labelling: Sensory language ('hand-rolled', 'slow-braised', 'Tuscan') triggers imagined taste and emotional response → higher selection rate (Wansink menu labelling research).
Apply — price salience: Omitting £ symbol reduces pain of paying (2.4.3) — price feels abstract, not like spending money.
Evaluate — effectiveness: 35% sales rise demonstrates real-world impact; combines multiple evidence-based techniques.
Evaluate — ethics: Manipulation — customers unaware of choice architecture; cannot give informed consent. Autonomy undermined — nudging toward restaurant's profit, not diner's preference. Counter-argument — no coercion; all items remain available; similar to 2.4.2 sales techniques. Regulation — some jurisdictions require transparent pricing.