The Pyschology Of Leaving Money On the Table

Pyschology is a field that sheds much light on many of the unbovious reasons of human behaviour.

According to many psychologists, the human pysche is a complex and intricate web that is hard to fully understand. Could they be right or is it just using a mind to understand a mind?

For me, psychology is an interesting topic, part of the reason is that I get to explore the subconscious and unconscious aspects of the human mind and how it influences human actions.

The rational and conscious mind, no matter how clever it is, hardly calls the shots when it comes to getting things done.

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Background

Greg is a businessman that specializes in commercial real estate, he wants to buy a new building strategically located at the downtown area and add it to his ever growing portfolio of assets.

After liaising with the other party, a meeting has been set up to begin the negotiation. Prior to the day of the negotiation, he spent a good amount of time crafting a plan about his offer and all other related things.

When Greg steps into the meeting room, he finds a good surprise waiting for him. One of the members from the other party is none other than his first love from over a decade ago.

As soon as they 'lock eyes' with each other, his business character melts like ice under the sun and his plan has become a distant memory like waking up in the morning and forgetting the dream(s) you had during the night.

He is nearly lost for words when asked what his offer is, the rational and conscious mind had temporarily sunk into the background while all these past memories about his first love are floating in his head.

His original plan is to create a very low, almost outrageous anchor price point and gradually negotiate his way around that area until he closes the deal.

Now, he opts to pay for the standard price for the property. In a business context, he's too generous in leaving that much money on the table.

Leaving Money on the Table

This phrase is commonly associated with not making the best of a monetary transaction, especially from the viewpoint that one could've made or taken more money than they actually did.

The table analogy is from the game of poker. When players don't play intelligently, they may end up leaving money on the poker table, meaning if they had played better they could have won more. Keep in mind that poker is a game of probabilities.

However, since it's pyschology, which is a seemingly complex topic. We will be jumping above the commonly8 associated meaning of the phrase and look at the other side of the spectrum.

For example, in the above story about Greg and his first love, we can see that he actually didn't take or make more money from the contract like he intended in the first place, yet he did leave money on the table by paying for the standard price instead of his perceived price of the property.

Basically, what I'm saying is that leaving money on the table isn't just about missing an opportunity. Sometimes, it's also about creating an opportunity.

Why Leave Money on the Table?

Truly, it can happen for various reasons depending on the situation.

Whether we notice it or not, we're to a certain extent bound by social norms and we follow unwritten rules that mostly determine our behavior.

For example, in some western countries, it is quite common to literally leave money on the table as in the form of a tip at a restaurant. Up until recently, this was not a common practice in other parts of the world. It was neither a norm nor an expectation.

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Speaking of expectation,
reciprocity makes us feel the need to return a favor or a kind gesture that we receive from someone, even if that person didn't ask for or expect it.

Sales and marketing 101 tells us that offering a free sample to a potential customer may make the customer feel more inclined to buy a thing from us, even if he/she doesn't need or want it.

So a reason why we leave money on the table is to engage reciprocity and depending on our viewpoint it could be a psychological trick or a trap.

A common theme shared by many psychologist is that the mind plays tricks on us and we fall into its trap(s).

Interestingly enough, the main remedy to this issue is to play tricks on the mind, but in a seemingly different way.

Creative visualizations or positive affirmations are some examples on how this is done. So who's tricking who, really?


Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.