title: Pay-what-you-want, identity, and self-signaling in markets.
abstract: We investigate the role of identity and self-image consideration under "pay-what-you-want" pricing. Results from three field experiments show that often, when granted the opportunity to name the price of a product, fewer consumers choose to buy it than when the price is fixed and low. We show that this opt-out behavior is driven largely by individuals' identity and self-image concerns; individuals feel bad when they pay less than the "appropriate" price, causing them to pass on the opportunity to purchase the product altogether.
authors.affiliation: Rady School of Management, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. agneezy@ucsd.edu
authors.forename: Ayelet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gneezy
authors.forename: Uri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gneezy
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Riener
authors.forename: Leif D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D002608:Charities / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003132:Commerce / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003258:Consumer Behavior / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D012649:Self Concept