Pay-what-you-want choices appear to be linked to self image
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 - 07:50
in Psychology & Sociology
(Phys.org) -- Panera, the national restaurant chain most famous for its bread, has been in the news of late because theyve decided to test the concept of allowing customers to pay whatever they want for bread, sandwiches and salads. The concept has proved so successful that Panera plans to open more restaurants that do likewise. To find out why such an idea might work, a group of researchers put together several field experiments to test their belief that the amount people pay for a pay-what-you-want (PWYW) opportunity, likely depends on their desire to boost their own self image. They have published a paper documenting their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.