The Effects of Self-regulatory Resources and Construal Levels on the Choices of Zero-cost Products

자아조절자원 및 해석수준이 공짜대안 선택에 미치는 영향

Most people prefer to choose zero-cost products they may get without paying any money. The 'zero-cost effect' can be explained with a 'zero-cost model' where consumers attach special values to zero-cost products in a different way from general economic models (Shampanier, Mazar and Ariely 2007). If 2 different products at the regular prices of ￦200 and ￦400 simultaneously offer ￦200 discounts, the prices will be changed to ￦0 and ￦200, respectively. In spite of the same price gap of the two products after the ￦200 discounts, people are much more likely to select the free alternative than the same product at the price of ￦200. Although prior studies have focused on the 'zero-cost effect' in isolation of other factors, this study investigates the moderating effects of a self-regulatory resource and a construal level on the selection of free products. Self-regulatory resources induce people to control or regulate their behavior. However, since self-regulatory resources are limited, they are to be easily depleted when exerted (Muraven, Tice, and Baumeister 1998). Without the resources, consumers tend to become less sensitive to price changes and to spend money more extravagantly (Vohs and Faber 2007). Under this condition, they are also likely to invest less effort on their information processing and to make more intuitive decisions (Pocheptsova, Amir, Dhar, and Baumeister 2009). Therefore, context effects such as price changes and zero cost effects are less likely in the circumstances of resource depletion. In addition, construal levels have profound effects on the ways of information processing (Trope and Liberman 2003, 2010). In a high construal level, people tend to attune their minds to core features and desirability aspects, whereas, in a low construal level, they are more likely to process information based on secondary features and feasibility aspects (Khan, Zhu, and Kalra 2010). A perceived value of a product is more related to desirability whereas a zero cost or a price level is more associated with feasibility. Thus, context effects or reliance on feasibility (for instance, the zero cost effect) will be diminished in a high level construal while those effects may remain in a low level construal. When people make decisions, these 2 factors can influence the magnitude of the 'zero-cost effect'. This study ran two experiments to investigate the effects of self-regulatory resources and construal levels on the selection of a free product. Kisses and Ferrero-Rocher, which were adopted in the prior study (Shampanier et al. 2007) were also used as alternatives in Experiments 1 and 2. We designed Experiment 1 in order to test whether self-regulatory resource depletion will moderate the zero-cost effect. The level of self-regulatory resources was manipulated with two different tasks, a Sudoku task in the depletion condition and a task of drawing diagrams in the non-depletion condition. Upon completion of the manipulation task, subjects were randomly assigned to one of a decision set with a zero-cost option (i.e., Kisses ￦0, and Ferrero-Rocher ￦200) or a set without a zero-cost option (i.e., Kisses ￦200, and Ferrero-Rocher ￦400). A pair of alternatives in the two decision sets have the same price gap of ￦200 between a low-priced Kisses and a high-priced Ferrero-Rocher. Subjects in the no-depletion condition selected Kisses more often (71.88%) over Ferrero-Rocher when Kisses was free than when it was priced at ￦200 (34.88%). However, the zero-cost effect disappeared when people do not have self-regulatory resources. Experiment 2 was conducted to investigate whether constual levels influence the magnitude of the 'zero-cost effect'. To manipulate construal levels, 4 different 'why (in the high construal level condition)' or 'how (in the low construal level condition)' questions about health management were asked. They were presented with 4 boxes connected with downward arrows. In a box at the top, there was one question, 'Why do I maintain good physical health?' or 'How do I maintain good physical health?' Subjects inserted a response to the question of why or how they would maintain good physical health. Similar tasks were repeated for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th responses. After the manipulation task, subjects were randomly assigned either to a decision set with a zero-cost option, or to a set without it, as in Experiment 1. When a low construal level is primed with 'how', subjects chose free Kisses (60.66%) more often over Ferrero-Rocher than they chose ￦200 Kisses (42.19%) over ￦400 FerreroRocher. On contrast, the zero-cost effect could not be observed any longer when a high construal level is primed with 'why'.

사람들이 돈을 지불하지 않고 무료로 얻을 수 있는 공짜제품을 과다하게 선호하는 현상을 '공짜효과'라 한다. 기존 연구들에 의하면 공짜제품에 주어지는 특별한 가치 때문에 이와 같은 효과가 발생한다. 본 연구는 공짜효과가 항상 나타나는 것이 아니라 심리적 변수에 의하여 조절될 수 있다는 것을 보이기 위하여 자아조절자원과 해석수준의 조절효과를 살펴보았다. 자아조절자원이 고갈되면 통제의 힘이 약해져서 가격에 대한 민감도가 감소할 뿐만 아니라 직관적이고 노력을 별로 기울이지 않는 정보처리과정을 통해 의사결정을 수행한다. 또한, 주어진 정보를 어떤 해석수준에서 처리하는가에 따라 선택이 달라진다. 고차원 해석수준에서 중심기능을 바탕으로 대안의 바람직성에 따라서 선택하는 반면, 저차원 해석수준에서 부가기능을 바탕으로 대안의 실행가능성에 초점을 두어 선택한다. 이와 같은 특성이 공짜효과의 크기에 미치는 영향을 살펴보는 것이 본 연구의 가장 중요한 목적이다. 자아조절자원과 해석수준에 의해서 공짜효과의 크기가 조절될 수 있다는 사실을 검증하기 위해 2개의 실험설계를 채용하였다. 두 실험 모두에서 기존연구에서 사용한 실험재(키세스와 페레로로쉐 초콜릿)를 이용했다. 실험 1은 자아조절자원 고갈 여부가 공짜효과에 미치는 영향을 검증했다. 자아조절자원 고갈과 비고갈 집단으로 나누어 공짜대안이 있는 선택과업과 그렇지 않은 과업에 할당했다. 자아조절자원이 고갈되지 않은 집단에서 공짜효과가 확실하지만, 자아조절자원이 고갈된 집단에서 공짜효과가 약해진다는 것을 밝혔다. 실험 2는 해석수준이 공짜효과에 미치는 영향을 검증했다. 실험 2는 '왜(why)'와 '어떻게(how)'를 이용해 해석수준을 조작했으며, 실험 1과 유사하게 공짜대안이 존재하는 의사결정과업과 존재하지 않는 과업에 할당한 뒤 공짜대안 선택에 미치는 영향을 확인하였다. 고차원 해석수준의 집단은 저차원 해석수준의 집단에 비하여 공짜제품 선택비율이 낮았다.