Conscious and Nonconscious Comparisons with Price Anchors: Effects on Willingness to Pay for Related and Unrelated Products

Exposing consumers to extreme prices can influence the price they are willing to pay for both related and unrelated products. Drawing on previous theories of anchoring and adjustment and selective accessibility of judgment-relevant knowledge, the authors provide an account of both asymmetries in the impact of price anchors across product categories and contingencies in the occurrence of these asymmetries. Four studies show the deliberate consideration of price anchors that can play a key role in whether the effect of the anchors will generalize across product categories. Specifically, an explicit comparison of a product to a price anchor increases the accessibility of features that represent a product available at this price. In turn, these thoughts influence the price that consumers are willing to pay for these products. In the absence of this deliberation, however, anchors influence both related and unrelated products, provided no other cognitive activity occurs in the interim.