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Psychology|Reading Time: < 1

Betty Crocker: Why You Need to Add Ingredients to Your Cake Mix

Here’s a great example of how our minds are wired in a way that can have some interesting impacts.

In Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work Matthew Crawford writes:

Back in the 1950s, when the focal practice of baking was displaced by the advent of cake mix, Betty Crocker learned quickly that it was good business to make the mix not quite complete. The baker felt better about her cake if she was required to add an egg to the mix. So if the Warrior were to be christened with a street name, an apt one might be the Betty Crocker Cruiser, forged as it is in the Easy Bake Oven of consumerism.

This must be a derivative of The IKEA Effect, whereby we value things more if we have to work for them.

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