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九尾數定價效果在不同評估模式中的侷限：分別、聯合與依序評估
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cognitive effort.
2.4 Research Hypotheses
This paper first proposes that when nine-ending and zero-ending prices are set as
stimulus options in SE and JE conditions, the nine-ending pricing effect will be manifest in
the former but diminished in the latter. In the SE condition, nine-ending and zero-ending
prices are presented and evaluated independently; thus, there is no comparison target for
each price. This makes people have to rely only on their mental cues of the prices. The
consequence corroborates the findings of Stiving and Winer (1997) research. People are
more likely to be influenced by the left-digit heuristic, which results in an underestimation of
the perceived value of the nine-ending price as the numerical digits of both prices are
converted into magnitudes. This means that the difference between the allocated positions of
nine-ending and zero-ending prices on an internal analog magnitude scale will be significant.
However, in the JE mode, the nine-ending and zero-ending prices are comparison
targets for each other since they are presented and evaluated simultaneously. This condition
promotes people to make more cognitive effort comparing the nine-ending and zero-ending
prices,
3
and this means that people will be more likely to use a systematic process than a
heuristic process. Consequently, they will perceive that the minor difference in the ending
digits (i.e., one cent/dollar difference) may cause a difference between the two prices in the
leftmost digits. Although they will still perceive the price digits as a whole, indicating an
analog representation, the perception of the prices on a mental analog magnitude scale will
3 According to prior studies on separate and joint evaluation modes, individuals might take different
cognitive efforts to evaluate the easy-to-evaluation and difficult-to-evaluation attributes. Although no
studies mentioned that consumers would take more cognitive efforts on the joint evaluation mode than on
the separate evaluation, it is reasonable to infer the possible phenomenon. First, this research manipulated
only one attribute (price) for participants to evaluate nine-ending and zero-ending digits separately or
jointly. In separate evaluation mode, participants might directly use a heuristic to judge that nine-ending
digit price would be cheap, but zero-ending digit price would be not. Conversely, in joint evaluation
mode, people saw the nine-ending and zero-ending digits price simultaneously, and then they had to pay
much attention to judge or compare if the products with nine-ending or zero-ending digits price had any
difference. Thus, more cognitive efforts may be taken in the joint evaluation than in the separate
evaluation whether there was difference or not.
In addition, this research also examined the nine-ending pricing effect by quantitative estimations. In
separate evaluation mode, individuals would possibly answer that they could purchase more products
based on the simple heuristic (nine-ending digits price is cheap). Conversely, people had to judge or
compare if two products with nine-ending or zero-ending digits were different, and then calculate the
possible quantitative estimations for two products. In other words, much cognitive efforts would be taken
in the joint evaluation mode to evoke a systematic process. In sum, it was possible that consumers would
make more cognitive efforts to evaluate two different prices in JE modes than in SE modes.