Unknown

Dataset Information

0

Evidence for Opportunity Cost Neglect in the Poor.


ABSTRACT: People often neglect opportunity costs: They do not fully take into account forgone alternatives outside of a particular choice set. Several scholars have suggested that poor people should be more likely to spontaneously consider opportunity costs, because budget constraints should lead to an increased focus on trade-offs. We did not find support for this hypothesis in five high-powered experiments (total N = 2325). The experiments used different products (both material and experiential) with both high and low prices (from $8.50 to $249.99) and different methods of reminding participants of opportunity costs. High-income and low-income participants showed an equally strong decrease in willingness to buy when reminded of opportunity costs, implying that both the rich and the poor neglect opportunity costs.

SUBMITTER: Plantinga A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5763356 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

altmetric image

Publications

Evidence for Opportunity Cost Neglect in the Poor.

Plantinga Arnoud A   Krijnen Job M T JMT   Zeelenberg Marcel M   Breugelmans Seger M SM  

Journal of behavioral decision making 20170911 1


People often neglect opportunity costs: They do not fully take into account forgone alternatives outside of a particular choice set. Several scholars have suggested that poor people should be more likely to spontaneously consider opportunity costs, because budget constraints should lead to an increased focus on trade-offs. We did not find support for this hypothesis in five high-powered experiments (total N = 2325). The experiments used different products (both material and experiential) with bo  ...[more]

Similar Datasets

| S-EPMC8633388 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC4134705 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC4778116 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC9555209 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC4266523 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC4376061 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC3486857 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC10718409 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC10106307 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC5899434 | biostudies-literature