• April 20, 2024

How powerful you feel could influence the way you compare the prices of wines or other products, according to a recent study.

The researchers explained that people mainly use two ways to evaluate whether the price of a product is fair. They compare the current price with the price they have paid for the same product in the past (self-comparing) or compare the price with what other people pay for it (comparison with the others).

"The degree to which a person feels powerful influences what kind of price comparison threatens their sense of self-importance and, in turn, affects the perception of price justice," the study authors wrote. .
 

Beware of the power you feel!

The study found that people who felt more powerful were more likely to consider a price to be unfair when they seemed to pay more than others, while people who did not feel powerful were more likely to feel that the price was unfair when doing so. a self-comparison

The researchers also found that people who felt powerful were more likely to be angry when they perceived the injustice in prices and also to complain about it, according to the study published online recently in the journal Journal of Consumer Research.

On the other hand, people who did not feel powerful were more likely to feel sad when they perceived some injustice in the price and to use tactics to avoid thinking about the issue, the authors said in a press release from the magazine.

"Our findings suggest important ways in which marketing professionals can target clients with different power status," they wrote. Liyin Jin and Yanqun He from Fudan University in China; and Ying Zhang from the University of Texas, Austin.