When people in an experiment were shown two DVD players, 32% indicated they would buy one of the brands and 34% chose the other. But when the participants were shown a single DVD player, only 9% or 10% (depending on which brand they saw) said they would purchase the product, says Daniel Mochon of Tulane University. Retailers should bear in mind that consumers have an aversion to being offered just a single option, he says. Even if they can find an option they like, they may be unwilling to purchase it without considering similar options first.

Between 1960 and 2008, the number of uses of “I” or “me” increased 42%, and instances of “we” or “us” declined 10%, in hundreds of thousands of American books, both fiction and nonfiction, studied by Jean M. Twenge of San Diego State University and a team of researchers. The rise of the singular pronoun and the decline of the plural are consistent with what has been described as an increasing level of individuality in American culture over the last half-century, the researchers say.

Women who had read a vivid article describing growing unemployment and increasing scarcity showed a stronger desire (6.19 on a 7-point scale) to purchase lipstick, form-fitting jeans, and form-fitting black dresses, in comparison with women who had read a neutral article (4.97 on the same scale), says a team led by Sarah E. Hill of Texas Christian University. In tough economic times, women appear to increase their attractiveness as a way of finding mates with financial resources. Recession fears prompted no such desire among men to enhance their attractiveness, the researchers say.