EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

The interaction between frames and numeracy in the evaluation of price reductions

Michele Graffeo () and Nicolao Bonini ()
Additional contact information
Michele Graffeo: University of Trento
Nicolao Bonini: University of Trento

Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, 2018, vol. 35, issue 1, No 11, 239-250

Abstract: Abstract In this study we examine two factors which strongly influence the perception of the value of a discount: its presentation format and numeracy (the ability to use and attach meaning to numbers). We described a product on sale with two presentation formats (money-off, e.g. 11€ less and percentage, e.g. 36% less) and we compared the preferences for these formats, presented jointly and separately. The experimental results indicate that the consumers consider the percentage format more attractive than money-off format, but when they are presented jointly the attractiveness of the percentage format decreases, reaching the level of the money-off format. This effect is modulated by the numeric ability of the consumers: the preferences of the highly numerate consumers are not modified by the presentation formats. On the contrary, low numerate consumers are highly attracted by the percentage format but they change radically their preferences once the percentage discount is presented with the money-off format, which indicates the actual amount of saved money. These results indicate that a class of consumers—those with low numeracy—is particularly vulnerable to messages presented with certain specific forms. However, at the same time, it is possible to mitigate this effect by providing pieces of information which can compensate the excessive attractiveness of the percentage format.

Keywords: Numeracy; Framing; Heuristic choice; Consumer attitudes & behavior; Consumer protection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D12 D18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40888-017-0059-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:epolit:v:35:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s40888-017-0059-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/40888

DOI: 10.1007/s40888-017-0059-1

Access Statistics for this article

Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics is currently edited by Alberto Quadrio Curzio

More articles in Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics from Springer, Fondazione Edison
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-20
Handle: RePEc:spr:epolit:v:35:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s40888-017-0059-1