Reservation price uncertainty: Loss,virtue, or emotional heterogeneity?

One of the best-researched anomalies in behavioral sciences is loss aversion, but with strong study variations and no systematic explanations thereof. The aim here was to introduce psychophysiological correlates for loss aversion to improve behavioral predictability. In an endowment experiment, a loss versus gain framing was implemented for a virtue versus a vice product. In addition to the classical price elicitation, an area of indifference and individual price reactions were examined, while emotional arousal as skin conductance levels were continuously measured. Furthermore, various heterogeneity measures for emotions and product experience evaluations were applied directly after the purchasing decision or as a more general personality measure at the end of the study. Results show fundamental regularities of product and frame on the price or the size of indifference. Physiologically measured emotional arousal further supports the dependence of loss aversion. Vice products and a loss frame increase emotional arousal and the consumer purchase price indifference. Reported emotions, aggregated as personality factors, can partially explain the observed heterogeneity in purchase price levels and price indifferences.