Swifties, rationality and opportunity costs
When Taylor Swift came to Australia in 2024 some fans went to great lengths to secure tickets, whilst others were happy paying for tickets seating them behind a concrete pillar. This clip is a great one to highlight how consumers aren’t always rational, there is limited supply of concert tickets far outstripped by demand and the opportunity costs differ (e.g. a parent not wanting to face their 12-year-old daughter being upset or another Swifty calling in sick so they could line up to try to buy tickets).
ACARA Alignment: ACHEK017
Clip Length: 1:41 minutes
Year: 2024
URL: Taylor Swift fans camp out for a second chance at tickets | ABC News – YouTube
Economics Concepts: Rationality, behavioural economics, opportunity cost, supply, demand
- Invite students to stand up if they went to the Taylor Swift concert in 2024
- Now enquire if students had trouble buying tickets or what they did to get tickets
- Then show the clip (Taylor Swift fans camp out for a second chance at tickets | ABC News – YouTube)
- Now ask students if the mother queueing up to avoid her daughter’s anger, or people risking losing their jobs by calling in sick to queue up, or buying tickets with an impeded view is rational behaviour
- Next show students this image (from Medium). Do they think the people of the clip were acting using traditional economic assumptions?
- Then explain how economists expect all people to make decisions weighing up the costs and benefits and maximise wealth and self-interest, however in reality this is rarely true as the Taylor Swift fans prove.
- Then ask students what the opportunity cost of the person calling in sick to queue up is. The next best option is going to work, which is the opportunity cost. You can repeat this for the mother with the twelve-year-old – her opportunity cost is not getting tickets and having an angry daughter.
- Now show students this TikTok: Melbourne Seating Information and Tips for Taylor Swift Concert | TikTok (2 minutes).
- Then draw a demand curve graph and illustrate A – D reserve by drawing points on the demand curve.
- Discuss with students how letting the ticketing system pick the best available ticket as suggested by the TikToker may result in tickets in the stands with a poorer view of the stage. But trying to select their own seating spot may result in missing out on tickets altogether. This is the opportunity cost of letting the ticketing system pick the seating location.
- Finish up by reinforcing student learning with this Wayground quiz: https://wayground.com/join?gc=62036969 (17 questions, 10 minutes)