Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Most people, while dining out, don’t think about about how much thought went into the menu. However, many menus are a carefully crafted exercise in psychology, aimed at getting customers to spend more money.
A menu from an upscale Chinese restaurant does not have any dollar signs, and it's not a typo.
Researchers at Cornell University's Center of Hospitality Research say they've found people who order off a menu without dollar signs spend significantly more than those who look at menus with dollar signs. Why?
Researchers believe patrons simply link the dollar sign to the pain of paying, so they're more likely to order cheaper options.
Here's another psychological tactic: Many restaurants that include cents in their prices will opt for 95 cents. A professional menu engineer told the New York Times that particular price ending feels "friendlier" to patrons. An ending like 99 cents tends to convey value but not quality.
Another hook: very descriptive language. A menu item for a Middle Eastern cuisine restaurant uses 73 words to describe a rice dish with chicken and cauliflower.
"Seasoned morsels of chicken are braised in a rich broth of tomatoes, onions and fragrant spices until very tender,” it begins. Descriptive menu labels like that, according to a University of Illinois study, raises sales by 27 percent.
And, some restaurants use a decoy, a menu item that draws attention because of its extremely high price.
Researchers say it's on the menu not because the restaurant really expects to sell many of those dishes — it's to make other items look like relative bargains.
