Can willingness‐to‐pay values be manipulated? Evidence from an organic food experiment in China
通过中国233名学生的有机食品实验，发现增加认知负荷会显著降低支付意愿，而时间压力无显著影响，提醒研究者注意调查中的认知负荷情境。
Abstract Human behaviors are driven by implicit and explicit motives. Psychologists have developed two main tools, namely time pressure and cognitive load, to disentangle the two motives. This implies values of willingness to pay (WTP) may be sensitive to time pressure and cognitive load levels in practice. An experiment with 233 students was conducted in China to study the willingness to pay for organic food with consideration of different time pressures and cognitive load levels. Results show that (1) increasing cognitive load could significantly reduce consumers’ WTP for organic food; and (2) time pressure does not have a significant impact on WTP values. Such results suggest researchers should be particularly cautious about the cognitive load situations of respondents during a WTP survey.