Overview
Bundling bias refers to a pattern where people who buy a bundle of items are less likely to use each one than if they had bought the items individually.
The concept emerges out of the intersection of psychology and behavioral economics. Our brains tend to seek shortcuts to estimate the value of a transaction, so when we see a bundle, we look past the cost of each individual item to a general sense of the bundle’s benefit. This in turn makes us less likely to feel compelled to use each item in order to ensure our benefits outpace our costs.
Within the context of coping skills developed for substance use disorders, bundling can be a mental exercise that discourages future use. Many will be familiar with a rationalization that sounds something like “I really need relief, so one dose of the substance is all I’ll take and then I’ll be straightened out.” By definition, to struggle with substance use to the point of it being classified a disorder means to be unable to control one’s impulsives and compulsions to do just that. As a result, reframing the decision as “if I take one dose, I’m actually committing to taking a dose every day for weeks or months and the consequences of that” can be an easier way to conceptualize the totality of that choice. In recovery circles, this is often summarized through the adage “play the tape forward,” which effectively bundles consequences of the future. Credit where it’s due, sometimes conventional cliches work before we have fancy explanations for them.