The Quality of Weight (and How to Fake It)

Of the many ways to communicate quality in a product, weight is perhaps the easiest to fake. In many physical products, high-performance components simply weigh more; thus, heavier or denser products deliver the impression of quality. Unlike build tolerances and genuine materials, however, weight can be inexpensively added just for weight's sake. It seems that's the case with the headphones shown in Bolt's teardown on Medium, where almost a third of the overall weight is due to superfluous metal pieces. It's worth noting that headphones are a product where extra weight actually detracts from the real use experience - but still, the weight adds to the perceived quality, and users may even experience a placebo effect. We humans are pretty easy to trick!
[via Gizmodo]