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So you're given a choice between paying 15 cents for a premium Lindt Truffle or a penny for a Hershey's Kiss.

Which one would you pick? Keep in mind you can only choose one.

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, posed that same question to his college students. The result? Seventy-three percent chose the Lindt Truffle.

Then he lowered the price on each by just a penny, so the truffle was 14 cents and the Kiss was free.

This time, 69 percent chose Hershey's. Free trumps quality, not that there's anything wrong with Hershey's.

Ariely was interviewed for a CBS Sunday Morning segment about how giving away products in our digital world has become an essential business strategy.

This comes as the struggling newspaper industry, the show pointed out, debates whether to charge for online content (yes, no and maybe. The show noted it's been a huge success for the Wall Street Journal but was a disaster for the New York Times, for several reasons.).

It also pointed out the success of Monty Python's Web site in getting people to buy DVDs loaded with extras. The British comedy group had seen its videos pirated on YouTube and decided to create its own YouTube channel. ("For three years you YouTubers have been ripping us off.")

The videos were still free to watch, but in better quality and more organized. Oh, and if you want, you could by a DVD for sale that was loaded with extras.

It became the number two most popular DVD sold on Amazon.com. Sales went up 23,000 percent.

It seems if you can entice people to your product by dangling something that's free but tasty, people might be willing to pay for some extras.