Understanding how consumers think is key to staying in business. Show high schoolers how their buying behavior really does affect the way the economy works with an informative video from Crash Course Economics. The video illustrates the ways Nudge Theory, loss aversion, and other marketing techniques can influence what you buy, when you buy it, and even how much you'd be willing to spend for it.

Concepts

economics, consumer finance, consumer awareness, human behavior, prices, marketing

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Simulate the ultimatum game from the video to illustrate irrational consumer behavior; consider implementing the activity before viewing the video to create prior knowledge
• Connect the video to a psychology class or social studies lesson that focuses on marketing techniques
• Encourage learners to write about a time when their buying was positively or negatively influenced by a company's policies

Classroom Considerations

• Examples of the stock market and 2008 financial crisis may confuse learners who have not seen previous videos in the series
• Narration moves quickly, so you may want to pause the video at key moments to reiterate concepts

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• Relates the variability of the Law of Supply and Demand to the Law of Gravity
• Illustrations and statistics are relevant and engaging

Cons

• None

Common Core

RH.9-10.2 RH.9-10.4 RH.11-12.2 RH.11-12.4