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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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In order to generalize the findings, Study 2 utilizes an experimental simulation of a real-
life purchasing situation to provide further evidence of the nine-ending pricing effect in the
SE condition and its diminishing effect in the JE and SQE conditions. The results also show
evidence of the influence of nine-ending pricing on quantitative estimations, which is
greatest in the SE condition, followed by the SQE and the JE conditions.
Study 3 extends the left-to-right comparison to confirm the different nine-ending
effects. The results reveal that there is an insignificant difference in both SE and JE
conditions when both prices have the same leftmost digits. That is, when nine- and zero-
ending prices have the same leftmost digits, participants are more likely to make similar
perceptions for both kinds of prices regardless of the changes in price ending digits and how
they are presented or evaluated.
Study 4 shows a boundary of the nine-ending effect as the task complexity increases,
and it supports our inference regarding the cognitive effort presupposed by HSM. In brief,
consumers may tend to use a heuristic to evaluate prices when the higher complexity
requires more cognitive effort exceeding one’s limited cognitive capacity and shorter
response time; by contrast, they tend to use a systematic process to estimate nine-ending
prices when the complexity of the condition does not exceed their cognitive capacity.
Combined with Studies 3 and 4, these results not only show a boundary for the nine-ending
effect regardless of the leftmost digits, the task complexity, or whether single or multiple
prices are presented, but they also support our inference regarding the cognitive effort
presupposed by HSM.
4.1 Theoretical and Practical Implications
The present article contributes to the understanding of the cognition processing of
prices. In contrast to the experimental approach of prior research, in which nine-ending and
zero-ending prices are often separately evaluated, this article extends joint and sequential
evaluation conditions with the intention of inducing realistic purchasing behavior. The
findings, first, support our hypotheses that people will make different judgment by different
evaluation modes, and extend the evaluation modes to compare with one single attribute,
price, ignored in previous evaluation research. Although Thomas and Morwitz (2005) use the
similar evaluation modes to compare the price magnitude, they only focus on measuring the
price magnitude perception of the target price after comparing this magnitude with the
reference price of the same product, and merely use higher level difference between two