McDonald's Is Playing Mind Games With You

People all across the country have been tightening their wallets lately. As a result, fast food restaurants are suffering. Back in the day, fast food's main allure was that it was so cheap. You could get a burger, fries, and a drink for $5. Now, you're lucky if you can get it for less than $10.

But inflation isn't the only reason you're spending more. Fast food joints like McDonald's also use this psychological trick to make you spend and consume more than you intended. Enter: the decoy effect.

What Is the Decoy Effect?

So you go to the movies — maybe to see the record-breaking Sinners — and you want to get popcorn. The small is $5, but the large is $6. And the large has free refills! Surely, anyone with half a brain would get the large, right? Well, anyone with half a brain also fell right into the trap.

The small popcorn is the "decoy," priced intentionally to push you toward spending more, even if it's just $1. "It’s meant to make the ‘right’ option feel obvious," Mike Ford, CEO of marketing service Skydeo, said to Fox Business. "The decoy effect proves that pricing is less about math and more about psychology. Brands that understand that win."

How McDonald's Is Playing Mind Games

McDonald's may have gotten rid of supersizing more than 20 years ago, but here's how they're still subtly getting you to go for the large fries and drink. At my local McDonald's in New York City, a medium Big Mac meal costs $10.59. The large Big Mac meal costs $11.49 — less than $1 more. Other than the massive increase in sugar and saturated fat, there's no reason not to opt for the large.

"The educated buyer who frequents these establishments will be quick to catch on to the fact that they are paying more," Frank Tortorici, an exec at Marketing Maven, explained to Fox Business. "The decoy effect is not conducive to serving and/or creating your best and longest-term consumer."