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Enticing for me but unfair to her: Can targeted pricing evoke socially conscious behavior?
Author(s) -
Wang Yu,
Krishna Aradhna
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1016/j.jcps.2011.11.004
Subject(s) - salience (neuroscience) , purchasing , salient , context (archaeology) , consciousness , marketing , business , microeconomics , economics , advertising , psychology , cognitive psychology , paleontology , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , computer science , biology
Prior research shows that consumers stop purchasing from firms that treat them badly. In this research we show that consumers also resist firms that treat other consumers badly while favoring them . In three experiments, we demonstrate such social consciousness in the context of targeted pricing, where firms offer lower prices to new (versus old) customers. A significant proportion of consumers in our experiments give up money to resist the price‐discriminating firm, especially when the discrimination is more salient or is not justified. Further, perceived unfairness mediates the relationship between the salience and justification of the pricing practice and consumer resistance.