Decoy Effect

You rarely judge an offer in isolation; you judge it against whatever sits beside it. A seller can exploit that by placing a visibly worse alternative near the preferred choice. Here, print-only and web-plus-print cost exactly the same, so the bundle dominates the decoy and acquires the glow of an obvious bargain. But that comparison answers only “Which $125 offer is better?” It quietly displaces the more important questions: “Do I want print at all?” and “Is either option worth $125?” The decoy narrows the decision until choosing the target feels less like spending and more like avoiding a mistake.

A decoy can establish that one listed option is better than another; it cannot establish that the winning option meets your needs or is worth its price. If you already evaluate each offer against a fixed budget and purpose, the engineered comparison loses much of its force.