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Inferring quality from price: the effect of stereotype threat on price-quality judgments
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Inferring quality from price: the effect of stereotype threat on price-quality judgments

Lei Song, Rajneesh Suri and Yanliu Huang
European journal of marketing, v 57(5), pp 1442-1466
05 May 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-10-2021-0802
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel

Abstract

Business Business & Economics Social Sciences
PurposeThis paper aims to examine how a stereotype threat, which entails being aware of a negative stereotype about one's social group (e.g. gender), affects consumers' price perceptions. Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted four studies to examine the effect of a stereotype threat on consumers' perceptions of a product's price-quality relationship. FindingsThis study found that being aware of a negative stereotype about one's social group (i.e. gender here) led consumers to use price more as a quality indicator. This study also determined that reappraisal - an alternative way of coping with stereotype threats - reduced the impact of a stereotype threat and, subsequently, decreased reliance on price to infer quality. Research limitations/implicationsThis research contributes to the consumer decision-making literature by examining stereotype threat effect in in-store product purchasing contexts; provides theoretical contributions to the processing of price information by exploring the role of a stereotype threat in price perceptions and revealing that impairment of consumers' working memory resources affects price perceptions; adds to the existing stereotype threat literature by investigating the effect of a stereotype threat on systematic versus heuristic information processing; and advances the stress and coping literature by suggesting that consumers adopting a reappraisal strategy cope better with a stereotype threat than when opting for a suppression strategy. Practical implicationsThis research provides important implications for consumers. For example, the findings suggest that consumers who would like to avoid paying more for stereotype-associated products may adopt reappraisal to cope with a stereotype threat. Reappraisal may allow consumers to use fewer cognitive resources when coping with stereotype threats, thus minimizing the possibility that they might overpay for high-priced products. Originality/valueThis research uniquely examines the effect of a stereotype threat on consumers' price perceptions and the role of reappraisal in this effect.

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4 citations in Web of Science
5 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#10 Reduced Inequalities

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Business
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