A study of ticket sales at a summer theater festival found that people who bought tickets to individual plays had a no-show rate of less than 1 percent, while those who paid in advance for all ten plays being performed that summer had a no-show rate of nearly 30 percent. This may be at least in part because the greater the awareness customers retain about the cost of an item, the more likely they are to use it.
The statement 'Usually, people who bought tickets to individual plays did so immediately prior to each performance that they attended' would, if true, best serve as an alternative explanation of the results of the study.