@engineer,
That is a great article, and it jives with other things I have read in behavioral economics.
I think it was in "Predictably irrational" they talk about a similar effect, when you are given a choice of products you are more likely to choose one where if there is only one choice you would just walk away. That is why they suggest that single men take along a (hopefully slightly less attractive) buddy when they go to pick up women.