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Imagine this…
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Your phone lights up with a text notification from your friend Jess.
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Without even reading it, you know exactly what it’s about.
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She’s still seeing her boyfriend of two years, even though she’s constantly complaining about him and clearly unhappy.
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She says he’s just… okay. Not a great listener, kinda lazy, and never puts the cap back on the toothpaste.

“He’s not terrible!” she insists when you ask why she’s still with him.
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You brace yourself and open the new text.
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“He forgot my birthday—again. But he’s not cheating or anything,” her text reads. “So maybe I’m being too picky?”

You resist the urge to scream and buy her a Hinge membership.
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Then you start thinking about your other friend Max, who just got dumped last month.
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He was devastated and claimed it was “like someone ran his heart through a paper shredder.”
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But over the past two weeks, he’s signed up for therapy, joined a gym, and started working on a new passion project.
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He seems happier than he has in years.
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​Why is Max moving on and doing way better than Jess?
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​In today’s edition of Why We Buy 🧠 we’ll explore the Region Beta Paradox—why we are motivated by extreme pain instead of mild discomfort.

Let’s get into it.
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🧠 The Psychology of the Region Beta Paradox

Psychologist Daniel Gilbert discovered that people often recover faster from severe setbacks than from minor ones.
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It’s called the Region Beta Paradox.
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In one study, people who were insulted by someone they expected to interact with (a “partner”) felt less upset five minutes later than those insulted by a non-partner.
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​This is likely because the stinging remark from a partner crossed a pain threshold, triggering rapid coping mechanisms.
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But the slight from a non-partner never felt “bad enough” to fix, so it lingered.

This means when discomfort isn’t severe, we tolerate it—even if that means staying stuck in an uncomfortable or inconvenient situation.
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But when pain passes a certain level, we’re jolted into action.
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That’s why smart marketers uncover the soul-sucking situation their buyers are tolerating, then show why it’s far more harmful to stick with the status quo.
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Because people don’t change when they see the light. They change when they feel the heat.​
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🤔 How To Apply This

Alright, so how can you apply this right now to sell more?

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Subscriptions​
​Show the hidden costs of sticking with the status quo

Misfits Market doesn’t just pitch savings. They also expose the silent cost of "Big Grocery"—like how much food is wasted (in many cases just for being "ugly").

This grabs your attention immediately by showing that the typical places you shop for food are also fueling massive food waste.
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That shift—from mild guilt to moral urgency—pushes you to sign up for a box, instead of thinking, “Eh, maybe next time.”

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Ads​
​Reveal the risk hiding in plain sight

It’s in the back of our minds that every word we type into a search browser is being tracked.
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But Apple transforms that passive concern into active fear.

​Flying surveillance cameras hovering over your screen turn invisible tracking into something visibly invasive.

Suddenly, the mild unease of “hmm, these ads feel targeted” becomes an intolerable violation.
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And just like that, iPhone’s privacy features shift from a nice-to-have to a need-to-have.
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Finance​
​Show why common events shouldn’t be common

Most people tolerate the annoying wait between paychecks, even if that means eating ramen the night before payday.
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Until Chime turns that two-week delay into a painful injustice.

The moment you see “your money” being held hostage, the feeling jumps from mild discomfort to heart-clenching pain.
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Suddenly, waiting doesn’t feel like the norm. It feels like being robbed of what’s already yours.
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​And that’s what jolts people to switch to Chime.
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💥 The Short of It

Buyers won’t budge when they believe their situation is just mildly uncomfortable.
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Your job? Crank up the discomfort just enough to make staying stuck in the status quo feel unbearable.
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Then show how switching isn’t risky—it’s relief.

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​Until next time, happy selling!

With ❤️ from Katelyn and Jordyn​

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