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臺大管理論叢
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1
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It was predicted that consumers with positive emotions and a high level of processing
fluency perceive nine-ending prices as more representative of monetary gain than of a loss
of quality, and that the opposite would hold for consumers in a negative emotional state.
To extend our knowledge of processing fluency and test H2, Study 2 followed the
procedure employed by Novemsky et al. (2007) in manipulating the level of processing
fluency among the participants by asking them to write down two (for a high level of
processing fluency) or ten (for a low level of processing fluency) reasons for their choices.
Shafir, Simonson, and Tversky (1993) also stated that thinking about choices by writing
down the reasons provides a way to help understand and explain decisions. That is, this
manipulation scheme would not only produce statistical measures providing us with
greater clarity on the mediating influence of processing fluency on the nine-ending price
effect, but would also enable us to explore the psychological processes likely to be
involved.
Participants
The sample comprised 240 undergraduate university students (111 females and 129
males with a mean age of 20.6 years and aged between 18 and 24) recruited from a large
southern university.
Design, Procedure and Stimuli
Study 2 used a 3 (emotion: positive, neutral and negative) x 2 (digit: nine, zero) x 2
(fluency: high, low) between-subjects design. The same emotion induction method as that
employed in Study 1a was used to manipulate the positive, neutral and negative emotions
of the participants. After successfully manipulating the participants’ emotions, half of the
participants in each group were asked to write down two reasons for their choices to
induce a high level of processing fluency. The remaining participants were asked to write
down ten reasons for their choices to induce a low level of processing fluency. After the
end of the manipulation process, the participants were required to answer the following
series of questions about the scenarios for perceived quality loss, monetary gain, and
purchase intention. The stimuli used for Study 2 were the notebooks shown in Table 1.
Processing Fluency
In most prior studies, processing fluency has been manipulated by using the degree of
ease with which the content provided might be perceived. Novemsky et al. (2007)
considered reason generation is not only an integral part of decision making in most
conditions, but might also be a common source of fluency. In Study 2, the processing
fluency of the participants was therefore manipulated to either a high level or a low level