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The Seller Cost Effect.

Tao Wang1, Lixin Tan1, Jianmin Zeng1

  • 1Sino-Britain Center for Cognition and Ageing Research, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Beibei District, Chonqing City, PR China.

Experimental Psychology
|May 19, 2025
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Buyers often prefer products with higher seller costs, even when irrelevant to value. This challenges traditional economic theories by showing how non-monetary factors influence purchasing decisions.

Keywords:
behavioral economicsconsumer behaviordecision biasnon-utility factorspsychological pricing

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Area of Science:

  • Consumer Behavior
  • Behavioral Economics
  • Decision Science

Background:

  • Cost significantly influences buyer and seller decisions in commodity transactions.
  • Prior research primarily examined seller cost impact on sellers or buyer cost impact on buyers.
  • The direct effect of seller costs on buyer purchasing decisions remained underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether seller costs directly influence buyers' purchasing decisions.
  • To determine if consumers value products with higher seller costs.
  • To explore underlying psychological mechanisms driving these decisions.

Main Methods:

  • Six experiments were conducted involving participant choices, pricing, and predictions of others' behavior.
  • Participants consistently chose, priced, and predicted preferences for items with higher seller costs.
  • Experimental designs varied, including single reseller scenarios and stricter controls, to confirm findings.

Main Results:

  • A consistent preference for items with higher seller costs was observed across all experiments.
  • Participants assigned higher values to products associated with greater seller costs.
  • The findings suggest that irrelevant factors significantly impact product valuation and consumption choices.

Conclusions:

  • Seller costs, even when irrelevant, can directly influence consumer purchasing decisions and product valuation.
  • These results challenge traditional utility theories that focus solely on relevant decision factors.
  • Zero-sum thinking emerged as the most plausible explanation for this observed consumer behavior.