It may look like an unassuming, laminated booklet with bold, bright font and photos of steaks sizzling on a fiery grill.
But your average restaurant menu is packed with pages of psychological tricks designed to manipulate you into spending more than you intended. The next time you pull up a chair at a restaurant, look out for these nine menu tricks designed to make you splurge.
[Read: 7 Restaurant Apps That Save You Money Every Time You Dine Out.]
Color scheme. Many menus rely on a carefully calculated color scheme to influence your order. For example, orange can make you feel hungrier, while green suggests freshness. Menus may use red shades around the most expensive items because the color is believed to incite action, writes Aaron Allen, a global restaurant consultant, in a study on menu design.
[See: 10 Money Leaks to Shut Down Now.]
Design layout. Restaurant menus are designed to take advantage of typical reading patterns. When a reader looks at a page, her gaze tends to begin in the middle of a page before moving to the top right, then the top left. The three points of this “Golden Triangle” are where you’re most likely to see the highest profit margin items listed.
Menus may also showcase high-profit plates in boxes and special spaces separate from other items. A pocket of negative space attracts the eye and calls attention to a dish, Allen says.
Anchor items. Restaurants may throw in expensive dishes as decoys or “anchor items” to make other prices seem frugal by comparison. For instance, a menu might feature a roasted scallops dish for $35, making the $22 pasta listed directly below seem like a steal.
Dollar sign omission. The dollar signs on a menu may trigger a reminder that you’re spending money. That’s why many restaurants omit dollar symbols or may even write out the numbers as words to avoid triggering negative emotions associated with spending money.
[See: 11 Expenses Destroying Your Budget.]
Flowery descriptions. With flowery descriptions and intriguing titles, a menu can make an ordinary item sound extraordinary.
For instance, “melted soft triple-crème between crispy, thick slices of malty pumpernickel, served with a house-made roasted tomato bisque with freshly grated Parmesan” sounds fancier than “grilled cheese and tomato soup.” By using more words, menus try to fool you into believing you’re getting more for your money.
Description writers may also introduce adjectives such as ” organic,” “locally sourced,” “free-range” and “line-caught” to boost your perception of ingredient quality.
Nostalgia. Many menus harness the power of nostalgia to awaken emotion and tempt diners. For instance, a restaurant may list an item as “Grandma’s cherry cobbler” or “Mom’s chicken noodle soup.”
Optimal number of items. According to a psychological theory called “the paradox of choice,” having too many options can make us feel overwhelmed, confused and paralyzed. When presented with too many options, diners may become bewildered and default to a food they’ve already tried. In fact, seven is the optimal number of choices for a menu, says menu engineer Gregg Rapp, in an interview with “Menu Cover Depot.” That means we prefer to see seven appetizers, seven entrees, seven cocktails, et cetera.
Photos. By including a vivid, realistic and appealing photo alongside a dish, menus can awaken your appetite, much like seeing the food in real life would. Rapp cautions restaurant owners not to overdo it, however, as providing a photo alongside every item is often associated with lower-end joints. One photo per page can boost the sale of the pictured item by as much as 30 percent, Rapp says.
Second-least expensive wine markup. Restaurants know many guests will be too embarrassed to order the cheapest bottle of wine, and will often go for the second-cheapest option instead. With this human tendency in mind, restaurants will list their second-least expensive bottle at the greatest markup on their wine list.
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How Restaurant Menus Trick You Into Spending More Money originally appeared on usnews.com
