Mind & behavior · 2007
Does making the cheaper chocolate free shift choices away from the more attractive chocolate?
Yes—in these experiments, a higher proportion of participants chose the cheaper, less attractive chocolate when it was free rather than priced at a small positive amount, while a lower proportion chose the more attractive chocolate. The comparison kept the cost–benefit difference between the options unchanged. The abstract does not report the size of the shift numerically or describe who the participants were.
Details
The researchers tested whether a zero price changes choices in a way that an ordinary price reduction does not. They compared choices between two types of chocolate across price conditions, keeping the cost–benefit difference between the options unchanged while making the cheaper chocolate either free or available for a small positive price.
When the cheaper, less attractive chocolate was free, its share of choices rose sharply and the more attractive chocolate’s share fell sharply. The researchers interpreted this as people acting as though “free” adds benefits, rather than merely removing a cost. They also tested possible psychological explanations; the results pointed to feelings as the most likely explanation, rather than establishing the mechanism conclusively.
The abstract gives no sample size, participant demographics or numerical effect size. The finding concerns these chocolate-choice experiments, not a demonstrated rule for every free product.
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