The Nacre Truth
This here is genuine and natural mother-of-pearl, not the plastic “simulated” stuff you would expect to see in costume jewelry at this price. And if you (or a Mom you know) are into the strong, iridescent fabulousness that only m-o-p can provide, you’ve found a heckuva deal.
Of course, unless you’re a jewelry expert, you have to put some faith in us on this one. And you may have a healthy skepticism since we’re the ones selling it. Purchasing decisions like this can be hard. As the economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein note in their book “Nudge”:
People will need nudges [economic guidance] for decisions that are difficult and rare, for which they do not get prompt feedback, and when they have trouble translating aspects of the situation into terms that they can easily understand.
The purchase of mother-of-pearl jewelry likely hits all three criteria for many of you, and thankfully this is only a $24 decision, not a $2400 one. Regardless, we aim to mitigate this decision-making difficulty.
As to “translating aspects of the situation into terms that they can easily understand”: WTF even is mother-of-pearl and why do you want it? Mother-of-pearl, also known as nacre, lines the shells of some pearl-producing mollusks. Jewelers dig it for its strength, iridescence, and size — unlike pearls, m-o-p’s flat surface can be fashioned into a variety of shapes. TL;DR: Is purdy.
This is also a decision for which you will not get “prompt feedback,” by which economists mean “immediate feedback.” The lag between purchase and receipt of this necklace will likely fail to create the synaptic connections necessary for learning. People drink to excess despite getting terrible hangovers for the same reason — the time delay between cause and effect is too long, and the brain doesn’t learn.
Finally, and probably most importantly, purchasing nacre-based jewelry is probably “difficult and rare” for you. Difficult, because you’re not an expert, and rare because who needs that much iridescent jewelry? Buying a home represents a similar decision, and for that reason many companies aim to exploit the poor decisions many homebuyers make. Buying a sandwich, on the other hand, is something we’re much better at because we do it often, the feedback is immediate, and the problem simple.
That’s all to say: You should be skeptical when we say this is a “good deal” because it’s exactly the type of purchasing decision that can be exploited by unscrupulous companies. So you can spend the next several hours becoming a mother-of-pearl expert, you can decide to trust our scruples, or you can just say, “Screw it, this is cheap and looks nice – in for one.”
