去超市買東西的時候，標價2.99元的商品似乎總是比3元的商品受歡迎。市場銷售圈的人管這叫“左位數效應”。說的是，人們購物時只關注價簽最左側的數字，只要這個數字在自己承受范圍之內，后面的數字就不會太在意了。

A new study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, shows that an occurrence known by marketers as the “left-digit effect” drastically influences the choices that people make while buying various items. Simple experiments have proven that too little attention is paid to the digit on the right hand side of a price tag. For instance, people would rather buy something that is priced at $3.99 than those priced at $4.00. In actual stores, this is encouraged, as producers and managers have the final two numbers of the price printed with much smaller fonts than the first one or two.

最新一期《消費者研究雜志》發表的一份研究顯示，一種被市場推廣人員稱為“左位數效應”的現象很大程度上影響人們購物時的決定。實驗證明，人們在購物時對價簽上小數點右側的數字并不是太在意。例如，人們更愿意購買標價為3.99美元的商品，而不選擇4美元的商品。這種現象在實體商店中也得到進一步放大，商家打出的商品價格中，最后兩位數字印得明顯比前兩位數字小很多。

“Shoppers pay a disproportionate amount of attention to the leftmost digits in prices and these leftmost digits impact whether a product's price is perceived to be relatively affordable or expensive,” the study says.

該研究指出：“消費者大部分的注意力都放在商品價格最左側的數字上面，而這些數字決定了該商品價格是否在可承受范圍之內。”