Framing Influence on Fairness Perceptions of Differential Prices

The objective of the research presented in this paper is to examine the effect of two types of framing (attribute and goal) on distributive and procedural price fairness perceptions and on some other variables of consumer behavior. For this purpose, two 2x2 marketing experiments were conducted. The first study evaluated the influence of price framing and seller’s motive on price fairness, price policy fairness, and value perceptions, as well as shopping intentions. The second study assessed the influence of price framing and seller’s motive framing on the same variables as in the first study. An important finding of this paper was that price framing has a direct influence on price fairness perceptions and seller’s motive has a direct influence on policy fairness perceptions. The implications of these results for the firms concern the communication of their pricing messages.

Keywords: distributive fairness, procedural fairness, attribute framing, goal framing, dual entitlement
JEL Classification: M31, C12, C92