Why (and When) Are Uncertain Price Promotions More Effective Than Equivalent Sure Discounts?
研究发现，概率促销（如X%概率免费）仅在等值确定折扣显得微不足道时才更有效，且这种偏好与消费者对确定结果大小的感知密切相关。
Abstract Past research suggests that offering customers a probabilistic promotion, such as an X% chance to get a product for free, is often more effective than providing a sure discount of equal expected value. In five studies (N = 8,969), we find that probabilistic price promotions are more effective than equivalent sure discounts only when those sure discounts are or seem trivial. Specifically, we find that probabilistic promotions are relatively more effective (1) when the sure discounts are actually smaller, (2) when the sure discounts are made to feel smaller by presenting them alongside a larger discount, and (3) when the sure discounts are made to feel smaller by framing them as a percentage discount rather than a dollar amount. These findings are inconsistent with two leading explanations of consumers’ preferences for probabilistic promotions—diminishing sensitivity and the overweighting of small probabilities—and suggest that people’s preferences for uncertainty are more strongly tethered to their perceptions of the size of the sure outcome than they are to their perceptions of the probability of getting the uncertain reward.