82 / 372
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
82
to perceive that the minor difference in the ending digits (i.e., one cent/dollar difference)
causes the difference in the leftmost digits between the two prices. This means that their
perception of value is no longer influenced by an anchoring heuristic that focuses on the
leftmost digits, and they are more likely to perceive the nine-ending price as a whole
representation, which makes their price perception equivalent to the actual price itself.
Eventually, as the nine-ending pricing effect diminishes, there will be no significant
difference in the quantitative estimations between items with nine-ending prices and those
with zero-ending prices one level higher (e.g., $199 vs. $200). The following hypothesis
summarizes these inferred effects:
H2: The difference between quantitative estimations of nine-ending and zero-ending
priced items will be greater in the separate evaluation condition than in the joint
evaluation condition.
As H1 and H2 might be seen to imply, the comparison of the stimulus options needs
more cognitive effort in the SQE condition than in the SE condition. However, the amount of
cognitive effort in the SQE condition is still lower than that in the JE condition. It is
therefore proposed that the nine-ending pricing effect manifests in the SQE condition to a
degree between that of the SE and the JE conditions. More precisely, the effect of nine-
ending pricing in the SQE condition is expected to be greater than that in the JE condition
but less than that in the SE condition.
Previously, it was proposed that the quantitative estimations of nine-ending priced items
are greater than those of zero-ending priced items in the SE condition, whereas no significant
difference exists between quantitative estimations of nine-ending and zero-ending priced
items in the JE condition. Given the expectation regarding the SQE condition that has just
been proposed, we can therefore infer that the difference between quantitative estimates of
nine-ending and zero-ending priced items in the SQE condition will be greater than that in
the JE condition but less than that in the SE condition. The following hypothesis states this
inference:
H3: The difference between quantitative estimations of nine-ending and zero-ending
priced items in the sequential evaluation condition will be less than that in the
separate evaluation condition but greater than that in the joint evaluation
condition.