I will gladly pay you £5 tomorrow for a hamburger today, or...

[Cain]

...how I can prove 100% that any system reliant on rationality is doomed to fail when presented to humans.

So, my building is right next door to a Tesco supermarket.  As in, you walk out the door, walk 10 metres, then turn right and take a step forward, and you're in in.

On the first floor of my seven story building is a vending machine.  In it, you can buy bottles of coca-cola for the princely sum of £1.40, for 500ml.

In Tesco, you can get 1.25 litres for £1.

Yet, in the vending machine, which is actually harder to get to than the Tesco (due to the security checks and outlay of the building), people will still buy the more expensive bottle with less volume, as evidenced by the lack of bottles in there.

Mitigating factors: the machine does have a cool robot arm thing which it collects your drink with.

Contra mitigating factors: once you've seen it once, it's not actually that cool.

Conclusion: humanity is stupid, and desperately requires a patch to remedy this cognitive security flaw.

[LMNO]

Conclusion: humanity is stupid, and desperately requires a patch to remedy this cognitive security flaw.

Newsfeed.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I think that I've described this once IRL as going out of your way to be lazy.

The Tesco has cheaper soda, with more volume. But that means I have to leave the building, all the way out there. I'm already in the building, and I don't want to leave it for just a soda. I'll go to the vending machine, which is in the building.

[Cain]

But the one in the building is actually much harder to get to.  You're using the lift to go down anyway, it takes an extra second to hit the bottom floor, then walk straight out.

Whereas the vending machine is in a common room, which is situated almost equal walking distance away and requires two additional security checks to get past.

[Luna]

Physical distance does not equal psychological distance.  "In the building" is always farther away, psychologically, then "next door."

Conclusion:  Sell chips and candy from your room at a markup, make fortune.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Physical distance does not equal psychological distance.  "In the building" is always farther away, psychologically, then "next door."

Conclusion:  Sell chips and candy from your room at a markup, make fortune.

This.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

But the one in the building is actually much harder to get to.  You're using the lift to go down anyway, it takes an extra second to hit the bottom floor, then walk straight out.

Whereas the vending machine is in a common room, which is situated almost equal walking distance away and requires two additional security checks to get past.

That's why it's going out of your way to be lazy. You end up doing more work due to laziness.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Physical distance does not equal psychological distance.  "In the building" is always farther away, psychologically, then "next door."

Conclusion:  Sell chips and candy from your room at a markup, make fortune.

This.

Yeah. I think part of it is that people are accustomed to thinking of space primarily in 2 dimensions, and neglect the up and down bit, since elevators and such are relatively recent inventions.

[Triple Zero]

I can think of a couple of reasons/circumstances why the machine might be a rational choice. But you're probably right in that they're just stupid.

(I suppose the vending machine bottles are chilled and the Tesco's aren't. The vending machine is available 24/7, Tesco's closed at night. Sometimes a 500ml bottle is more convenient to carry than a 1.25L one)

Oh and there's also the (very small) possibility that they're extremely clever: most vending machines have diagnostics codes or logic flaws allowing one to get the merchandise from them for free or reduced price. This is of course extremely unlikely [sometimes it's as simple as one of the identical choices being priced lower, sometimes there's a complicated sequence of coins, change, money back, buttons, that somehow fucks up the device's logic and causes it to give back more change than it should]

Oh and is this the place where all your foreign students live, too? Maybe some of them are from a country that have a coinage that's nearly the same weight/size of some GBP coin?

But yeah they're probably just stupid

[hooplala]

The 1.25L bottles go flat fast.  If you live by yourself and only drink soda on occasion, the smaller but more expensive bottle is the better bet.  Flat soda sucks balls.

[AFK]

That's what I was thinking.  The big bottles are kind of a waste of money unless it is going to be consumed in one sitting.  They go flat fast.  Though, that said, vending machine prices do tend to be inflated so I would suspect that the store would have a better price on even those smaller 500 mL bottles.  Usually, the more convenient your options the costlier the items are. 

[LMNO]

Buy a 6-pack of smaller bottles.  Or a case.

[Freeky]

Big bottles only go flat fast if you don't close them hard enough.

I know exactly what you're saying Cain.  And yes, people are dumb. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Cain:  PT Barnum & Canada Bill Jones.

There are no exceptions.

[Pæs]

The 1.25L bottles go flat fast.  If you live by yourself and only drink soda on occasion, the smaller but more expensive bottle is the better bet.  Flat soda sucks balls.

But... they're cheaper. Even if you only drink the same amount of soda as is in the smaller bottle, it's still a better deal.
Unless they go flat in the time it usually takes you to drink 500ml?