Digital world

Music, film and video game makers face a new online, digital world. And some are testing a [revolutionary:spindly] pricing system: "pay what you want." But a new study finds that when consumers can name their own price, many may opt out of buying at all. The study is in the [Proceedings:Journal] of the National Academy of Sciences.For the research, tour boat passengers posed for photos. Each boat ride [announced:declared] a price of $15 per picture. But they then charged either $15, $5 or the option to pay what you want.As expected, the fewest tourists purchased photos when they had to pay full price. But more [customers:people] bought photos when they cost $5 than when prices were pay what you want - which could have saved passengers even more.The researchers [suggest:realised] that choosing to pay less than an announced lower-than-expected price made people feel cheap. With [choices:process] then limited to spending more money or feeling like a tightwad, potential customers simply opted out of the purchase. So on sea or land, a low, set price may catch the most fish.