IT’S THE experience of every high-street shopper. You go to buy, say, a
television and congratulate yourself on forgoing the more expensive wide-screen
model for a no-frills version. Then your eyes catch sight of the vastly
expensive designer box with just a few new features. Suddenly the price
difference between the first two doesn’t seem that big, and you go for the
wide-screen set after all.
If this sounds familiar, don’t worry. It’s not just human consumers who don’t
know what they want. Researchers have now shown that birds and bees make similar
irrational decisions when foraging for food. This…
