Do you get what you pay for? The influence of emotional valence and scarcity on the price-quality effect

Abstract

The impact of emotions on price-quality perceptions is not well understood. We conducted for studies to explore this relationship. The results showed that positive mood had a positive impact on the price-quality effect, while negative mood did not significantly affect the relationship (Study 1). In addition, participants primed with a positive mood relied more on price when making quality judgments than those primed with a negative mood (Studies2 and 3). We also found that the sense of scarcity moderated the relationship between emotional valence and the price-quality effect (Study 4). Specifically, positive and negative moods had different impacts on the price-quality effect only among participants with a lower sense of scarcity. These findings advance our understanding of price-quality judgments and shed light on how the sense of scarcity influences the relationship between mood and the price-quality effect.