From the NYT, Diner Beware: Turisti Pay More in Roman Restaurants
It might be an extra 30 cents for an espresso, or a $5 tithe tacked onto a bottle of wine. It may even mean the substitution of lower grade ingredients. But the practice of charging tourists more does exist and is committed daily, even hourly. If executed properly, the turista will be none the wiser.
“You think you are being taken care of,” said Christian Boyle, a Londoner who has spent some months in Rome. Soon after arriving, she and some friends displayed fatal naïveté, when they were not sure what to order at a restaurant just off the Piazza del Popolo. “We couldn’t decide,’’ she said, “so the waiter said he would bring us some things to try.’’
“One thing kept arriving after another,” she said. Things were fine until “he charged us full price for all these little dishes that we thought we were just trying.”
People hate getting cheated. Evolutionary psychologist Leda Cosmides built pretty cool experiments to demonstrate how good we are at finding cheaters. Turns out, the human brain specifically evolved the ability to detect cheaters.
Which brings us to price gouging.
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