Penny Wise and Pound Foolish: The Left-Digit Effect in Price Cognition
Abstract
Through five experiments, we provide a cognitive account of when and why nine-ending prices are perceived to be smaller than a price one cent higher. First, this occurs only when the leftmost digits of the prices differ (e.g., $2.99 vs. $3.00). Second, the left-digit effect also depends on the numerical and psychological distances between the target price and a competing product's price. The closer the two prices being compared, the more likely is the left-digit effect. Third, the left-digit effect is not restricted to the domain of prices; it also manifests with other multidigit numbers. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by University of Chicago Press in its journal Journal of Consumer Research.
Volume (Year): 32 (2005)
Issue (Month): 1 (06)
Pages: 54-64
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Web page: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JCR/
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Raghubir, Priya, 2006. "An information processing review of the subjective value of money and prices," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(10-11), pages 1053-1062, October.
- Snir, Avichai & Levy, Daniel & Gotler, Alex & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2012.
"Not All Price Endings Are Created Equal: Price Points and Asymmetric Price Rigidity,"
MPRA Paper
42252, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Avichai Snir & Daniel Levy & Alex Gotler & Haipeng (Allen) Chen, 2012. "Not All Price Endings Are Created Equal: Price Points and Asymmetric Price Rigidity," Emory Economics 1206, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta).
- Avichai Snir & Daniel Levy & Alex Gotler & Haipeng (Allan) Chen, 2012. "Not All Price Endings Are Created Equal: Price Points and Asymmetric Price Rigidity," Working Paper Series 69_12, The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
- DAMAY, Coralie, 2007. "Mémorisation des prix par les enfants : Que nous apprennent leurs erreurs de rappel ?," Les Cahiers de Recherche 871, HEC Paris.
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