Why Your Brain Treats a Discount as a Bargain

Behavioral Economics with Fexingo: Decision Making, Bias, and How People Really Spend · Aug 17, 2026 · 8m · transcript

In this episode of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore why a discount can make a mediocre product feel like a steal — and how that feeling can backfire. They start with a concrete example: a $200 jacket marked down to $120. Lucas explains the concept of transaction utility, a term coined by Richard Thaler, where the perceived deal itself becomes part of the value. They discuss how retailers exploit this with reference prices, and why a discount can lead to post-purchase regret when the product fails to live up to the hype. The episode also touches on the 'discount…