The interaction effect of socioeconomic status and emotions on willingness to pay

ABSTRACT

The aim of this work is to determine whether the interaction of emotions and socioeconomic status affects a consumer’s willingness to pay. For this purpose, we used an online survey of cheese preferences among primary grocery shoppers in Chile. Through a conjoint analysis, we find that socioeconomic status and emotions, and their interactions, are the significant and relevant variables that explain changes in willingness to pay with regard to cheese texture and color. Moreover, the willingness-to-pay results change relevantly when socioeconomic status is interacted with negative emotions.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotions
• income
• WTP
• conjoint analysis
• consumer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andres Silva

Andres Silva attained a Master’s from Texas A&M in the United States and a doctorate from University of Kent in the United Kingdom. He is an Assistant Professor at the School of Economics and Business of the Universidad Central de Chile. His area of interest is consumer behaviour with regard to food and the assessment of related programs. His recent research includes the assessment of restrictions on publicity in the United Kingdom and the tax reform for sugar-sweetened beverages in Chile and determinants of food security in Mexico.

Nicolas Von Hausen

Nicolas Von Hausen received a Master´s in Economics from ILADES-Georgetown University. He is an economic analyst at the Department of household statistics at Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas. His areas of interest are statistics, public policy, food policy and managing large databases.

Lindsey M. Higgins

Lindsey M. Higginsis an Associate Professor of Agribusiness at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo. She holds a PhD and an MS in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University and a BS in agribusiness from Cal Poly. Her primary areas of research and teaching relate to the marketing of agricultural and food products.