The Effects of Social Interaction and Social Norm Compliance in Pay-What-You-Want Situations

Since Pay-What-You-Want is a relatively new field of study, the influence factors during the pricing process are not sufficiently explored. It was hypothesized that in a hypothetical Pay-What-You-Want situation, increased social interaction and social norm compliance would lead to a higher willingness to pay for a travel mug. In a laboratory experiment, 79 German students were randomly assigned to three groups which varied in the degree of social interaction. Social norm compliance was assessed with a questionnaire. A 3 × 3 between-group factorial ANOVA showed a significant main effect for social interaction (p = 0.025, η2 = 0.08), whilst social norm compliance was slightly not significant (p = 0.067, η2 = 0.03). Follow-up comparisons were calculated and the results discussed. The findings implicate that especially the degree of social interaction should be regarded, both by researchers and practitioners, as an important situational factor influencing the price in a Pay-What-You-Want situation.