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Outwitting the rational mind: How effortful thinking influences price cognition
Author(s) -
Hossain Mehdi Tanzeeb,
Yang Zhiyong
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of behavioral decision making
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0771
pISSN - 0894-3257
DOI - 10.1002/bdm.2112
Subject(s) - heuristics , deliberation , psychology , cognition , preference , cognitive psychology , context (archaeology) , information processing , dual process theory (moral psychology) , social psychology , argument (complex analysis) , economics , microeconomics , computer science , paleontology , biochemistry , chemistry , politics , political science , law , biology , operating system , neuroscience
Prior research presents mixed findings on how people's degrees of effortful thinking influence their reliance on heuristics and biases. Although the tenets of dual process theory would argue that effortful thinking should attenuate people's reliance on heuristics, a number of contemporary findings suggest otherwise: Effortful thinking may, in fact, enhance biased processing of information in certain instances. This research shows how, in the context of pricing, people's degrees of effortful thinking can amplify their inclination towards biased processing of price information. In five studies ( n = 1,339), we find that effortful thinking induces a greater preference for nine‐ending (vs. zero‐ending) prices, and the effect is mainly driven by people's greater propensity for argument‐based decision making. Such predilection to nine‐endings attenuates with lower cognitive effort in processing price information. Moreover, when locus of deliberation shifts from price to quality, consumers' preference for nine‐ending priced options is subdued.