Comparative Evaluation and Framing: How Price-Quality Relationship Is Vulnerable to Attribute Framing

As many of our decisions rely on relativity in judgmental processes, consumers also conduct comparative evaluations to build most of their preferences, if not all. This research investigates how framing of product information influences the comparative evaluation process performed during purchase decisions. In particular, we study the impact of attribute framing on consumers’ perceptions and attitudes, and eventually on their preferences. In a series of six experiments, we show that consumers tend to perceive two products more differently from each other, when the focal attributes of products are framed negatively (vs. positively). We explain this greater perceptual difference in negative frames with stronger sensitivity to losses (vs. gains), which leads to the amplified unfavorability of the inferior product in negative frames. In addition to the perceptual shift, results also show that framing changes attitudes towards price. We observe a stronger price-quality association in negative (vs. positive) frames and explain this finding with the adversity of drawing quality inferences out of unfavorable information. Hence, consumers are more likely to build favorable attitudes for high-priced products, when attributes are framed negatively (vs. positively). As a result of this stronger price-quality inference, preference for the more expensive product is found to be greater when products are presented in negative frames than in positive frames. Overall, this research contributes to framing and pricing literatures by observing how the entire comparative decision process is shaped on the basis of attribute framing.