Plant Novices and Experts Differ in Their Value of Plant Type, Price, and Perceived Availability

Abstract

Individuals with greater plant knowledge likely differ in purchase behavior compared to those with less plant knowledge. The goal of this study was to investigate consumer preferences for plants based on availability, price, and type, comparing plant experts with novices. Researchers employed an online survey and sub-contracted with a survey panel to recruit participants, yielding 1,010 complete and useful responses. Participants responded to a 10-item plant knowledge test adopted from Knuth et al. (2020). The number of correct answers to the knowledge test was used to categorize respondents into plant novice and expert groups (those intermediate in plant knowledge were excluded from analyses) and differences were explored. Experts had a slightly higher percentage of females compared to novices, were eight years older, and were slightly more educated compared to novices. Experts spent nearly twice as much on plants in 2021 as novices and bought more plants but from fewer plant categories. Plant type was the most important contributor to the expert's purchase decision, followed by price, and then availability. Novices valued more (had a higher mean utility score) plants that were moderately common when compared to experts, while experts valued rare plants more than novices.