Turning unplanned overpayment into a status signal: how mentioning the price paid repairs satisfaction

We investigate how mentioning the price paid to others (which we refer to as price-dropping) can be used to assuage the negative experience that occurs when consumers realize they unintentionally overpaid for a product. Specifically, we show that by engaging in price-dropping, consumers re-appropriate the overpayment into a conspicuous consumption signal that improves their satisfaction. Two studies demonstrate that the effect of price-dropping is mitigated when consumers who overpaid have low sensitivity to status cues, and also when the audience of the price-drop is unreceptive to status cues. We discuss how price-dropping has implications for retailer pricing policies and customer experience, along with avenues for future research.