摘要
大量的行为决策文献告诉人们,个体或者团体的经济决策,尤其是行为决策在很多情境下是非理性的。“心理账户”理论常被用来解释一定情境下消费活动的非理性。本论文的研究目的,就是为了了解价格折扣和商品相关度对消费者心理账户的影响,为此进行了一个预备实验和两个正式实验。
预备实验为正式实验提供了必要的实验材料。预备实验是一个语义相关度的判断任务,邀请了120名大学生被试对实验二中所使用的一种目标商品和三种配对商品间的语义相关度做了一个估计,实验结果符合实验二中对不同商品间相关度的要求,为实验二的顺利实施奠定了坚实的基础。
实验一报告了486名大学生被试在九种实验情境下,面临选择任务和决策任务时是如何做决策的。实验结果验证了大量有关心理账户理论的研究结果,表明在个体的消费决策行为中,当绝对节省水平较低时,相对节省水平的高低起了决定性作用,影响了个体的选择。在这个决策过程中,个体自觉地运用了局部心理账户,就如特韦斯基和卡尼曼(1981)所报告的偏好反转现象。当绝对节省水平较高时,相对节省水平的高低对个体的决策基本无影响,这时绝对值效应明显,在这个决策过程中个体自觉地运用了综合心理账户。这是相对于绝对节省水平较低的情况下的一种偏好反转现象。
实验二中有312名大学生被试参加了实验,研究了个体在六种实验情境下对有价格折扣的目标商品的接受程度。在这六种实验情境下,目标商品价格折扣的绝对值是相同的,同时计划购买的两种商品的正常价格的总价值也是相同的。实验结果表明,曾被特韦斯基和卡尼曼在实验结果中所验证的偏好反转现象存在,同时又出现了一个未曾报告过的偏好反转现象。即当两种计划购买的商品相关度较低或者两种商品无关时,大多数个体乐意接受价格折扣;而当两种商品相关度高时,只有少数个体乐意接受价格折扣。实验二的研究结果同时也进一步验证了实验一的结论,即绝对节省水平一定时,相对节省水平的高低影响个体对价格折扣的接受程度。
两个实验研究结果表明,商品价格因素(价格折扣的高低)和商品相关度是影响消费决策行为中个体心理账户和偏好反转的两个因素。
So many behavioral decision literatures suggest that economic decisions especially consumer choice may be made on less than rational grounds. Mental accounting theory has been used to explain the irrational of consumer decisions in certain conditions. The purpose of this paper is understand how the price discount and semantic relation of product to affect "mental accounting" in decision making.
The preliminary experiments afford the necessary material for the formal experiment. In preliminary experiment 120 undergraduates who did not participate in the formal experiment were asked to assess how much two product (one is target product ,the other is paired product) in experiment two were semantic related. The judgment task is typically used to measure semantic distance between concepts and verity semantic relations. The findings show that the three pairs used in this experiment were associated to different degree of semantic relatedness.
In experiment one, 486 undergraduates participated in the nine different novel decision scenario. When they face o choice task, how did they make decision. The result confirmed the findings of numerous prior studies and replicated the findings in Tversky and Kahneman(1981). In consumer decision making, when the absolute saving level was low(It was 3 yuan in this experiment), the relative saving level impacted on the frequency with which participants responded yes or no, thus, there was a evidence of them using topical mental accounting. That was the preference reversal at first reported by Tversky and Kahneman(1981). When the absolute saving was medium or high(It was 6 or 9 yuan), the finding is reversal. As this, the relative saving level did not impact on the frequency with which participants responded yes or no. Thus, the absolute effect was obvious. There was a evidence of them using comprehensive mental accounting. That was another preference reversal.
In experiment two, 312 undergraduates participated in the six different novel decision scenario. Whether people accepted or did not accept a price reduction on target product on six conditions. On the six experiment condition the absolute value of the price discount was the same as well as the total of regular price of planned purchases. The findings show that the previous preference reversal at first reported by Tversky and Kahneman(1981) exist when planned purchases were weakly related. That was, when relative saving level was high, the majority of people accepted the price discount whereas the minority accepted when relative saving level was low. Also, a previously unreported preference reversal is found. The majority of people accepted the price discount when two products were weakly related or non related whereas the minority accepted when two products were strongly related. The finings of experiment two proved the result of experiment one. When absolute saving level was constant the level of relative saving affected acceptance of price discount.
The findings of the two experiments show that, price discount and semantic relation of planned products are two important factors which affect the individuals' mental accounting in consumer decision making.
引文
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