How collective stress affects price fairness perceptions: The role of nostalgia

Lan Xia and Anne L. Roggeveen

Journal of Business Research, 2022, vol. 152, issue C, 361-371

Abstract: This research examines how consumers evaluate the fairness of price increases during collective stress situations. Across three collective stress situations (COVID-19, Black Lives Matter protests, and economic downturn), the authors confirm that a collective stress situation evokes feeling of nostalgia as a coping mechanism. When the collective stress situation is more severe, it heightens feelings of nostalgia, which then enhances consumer empathy, such that people tend to infer benevolent motives for a price increase. That is, consumers perceive the price increase as more fair. This research also reveals how a consumer’s political identity can moderate the impact of the perceived severity of the collective stress situation on nostalgia and thus price fairness. As a collective stress situation becomes more severe, conservatives (vs. liberals) experience greater nostalgia, leading to higher perceived fairness of price increases.

Keywords: Price fairness; Collective stress; Nostalgia; Political identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:152:y:2022:i:c:p:361-371

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.08.004

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