How People Have an Irrational Need to Complete Sets of Things

This excellent Quartz post ‘People have an irrational need to complete “sets” of things‘ quotes a Harvard University study showing that as a species we have some strong bias towards completing incomplete sets.

This can be used as a marketing trick of course, and is a reason why some people become obsessed with collecting stuff (to complete some series in particular). “New research reveals that people are irrationally but effectively motivated by the idea of completing a set, even if it means working harder or spending more money—with no additional reward other than the satisfaction of completion and the relief of avoiding an incomplete set. ”

At the same time, research warns that the set should not be overly complicated and comprise only a limited number of items.

Be careful about this bias next time!