The subscription trap and how it impacts students' budgets

Monthly subscriptions can reinforce behaviors like the sunk-cost fallacy and loss aversion, explains a W. P. Carey marketing expert.

In this article published Oct. 9, 2025, by The Reynolds Center for Business Journalism:

Subscriptions are set up as a low upfront cost. People are not able to see what that means in terms of a year, or if it ends up being a perpetuity, how much value it adds up to being.

— Frank Jee, clinical associate professor of marketing