消费决策中的零：零价格效应和零比较效应

数字“0”由于自身所具有的特性(最小的自然数和不可作为被除数),当其与商品的价格维度和属性维度相结合时会对消费者的决策产生影响。已有研究表明商品的零价格和零属性会对消费决策产生影响,即零价格效应和零比较效应。情绪和社会规范是零价格效应产生的心理机制,参照依赖则是零比较效应产生的心理机制。商品价格、商品类型和消费者的心理因素是零价格效应的边界条件;而选项的数量是零比较效应的边界条件。未来的研究可以从不同商品类型、不同社会规范、“价格-损失”与“价格-质量”、注意等角度对零价格效应进行深入研究;也可以从结构匹配模型和齐当别模型的角度进一步探索零比较效应的“比较”机制;可以探讨价格是否能被视为商品的“坏属性”,进而讨论零价格效应和零比较效应二者之间的关系。

Zero in consumer decision-making: The zero-price effect and the zero-comparison effect

Current research has shown that numbers impact consumer decision-making. The number “zero”, owing to its features as being the minimum natural number and non-divider, influences consumer decision-making through its combinations with the price and attribute dimensions of products. Scholars refer to the effects of zero price and zero attribute on consumption decision-making as the zero-price effect and the zero-comparison effect, respectively. The zero-price effect refers to the phenomenon that in the selection between high- and low-price products, when all product prices are reduced by the same amount and the price of the low-priced product is reduced to zero, the proportion of high-priced product being selected decreases and the proportion of low-priced (free) product being selected increases. Research on the zero-price effect includes the classic zero-price effect, the zero-price effect in bundled promotion, and the zero-price effect in freemium. The zero-comparison effect means that when the desirable attribute of a product shifts from a small non-zero number to zero, the proportion of this product being selected increases, and when the undesirable attribute of a product shifts from a small non-zero number to zero, the proportion of this product being selected decreases. The current literature further focuses on the mechanisms underlying the zero-price effect and the zero-comparison effect. Affect and social norms are two psychological mechanisms to explain the zero-price effect. The affect perspective holds that the emergence of the zero-price effect includes two processes. In the first process, the free product evokes consumers’ positive affect. In the second process, positive affect makes consumers more inclined to choose the free product, which generates the zero-price effect. The perspective of social norms is another approach to explaining the zero-price effect. The social norms of reciprocity and politeness make consumers more inclined to choose zero-price products, thus resulting in the zero-price effect. Reference dependence is the mechanism to explain the zero-comparison effect. The reference dependence perspective states that people rely on relative differences of a product attribute to make decisions. Since “0” cannot be used for the comparison of relative differences, consumers thus lose the reference point, which makes it hard to identify relative differences of a given product attribute, thereby lowering the influence of relative attribute differences on consumers’ decision-making which leads to the zero-comparison effect.Some studies focus on the boundary conditions of the zero-price effect and the zero-comparison effect. These studies reveal that product price, product type, and consumer psychology are the boundary conditions for the zero-price effect, whereas the number of choice options is the boundary condition for the zero-comparison effect.We suggest that future research be carried out in the following ways. For the zero-price effect, future research can further explore how product type, social norms influence the zero-price effect. Since price not only symbolizes the monetary cost (sacrifice), but also the product quality, future research can consider the impacts of price-sacrifice and price-quality on the zero-price effect. Moreover, future research on the zero-price effect can concentrate on attention, examining whether the zero-price effect comes from the fact that the zero price attracts more consumer attention. For the zero-comparison effect, future research can be based on structural alignment model and equate-to-differentiate model to further study consumers' “comparison mechanisms” for product attributes and their influences on the zero-comparison effect. Finally, future research may also investigate the association of the zero-price effect and the zero-comparison effect by exploring whether price can be seen as an “undesirable” product attribute.