Experimental analysis of value price perception in consumer decision making

According to the classical economic assumptions, individuals make rational decisions. According to this assumption, consumers, in theory, take advantage of both the benefit and the costs of choice, choosing the option for the maximum potential of the net benefit. However, consumers can sometimes make prejudicial decisions based on emotions rather than a rational cost benefit analysis. One of the most important factor affecting consumer behavior in consumer purchasing decision process is price perception. In this thesis, it is aimed to analyze the value price perceptions of the consumers in the purchasing decision process experimentally. Three different field tests were conducted in this direction. In the first two experiments, the effect of zero price was tested in the decision-making process. As a result, it has emerged that the bedouin has a profound effect on preferences by creating a psychological element in consumers. In the third experiment, it is analyzed how the discounted price creates a perception on the value of the product. As a result, it was observed that the discounted price decreased the value of the product. The first experiment and the third experiment were carried out in two stages and two dependent t-tests were applied to determine whether there was a significant difference in the preferences between the groups of participants at each stage. As a result, a statistically significant difference was found between group preferences for both experiments. In all three experiments, gender discrimination was taken into consideration and an independent sample t test was applied to determine whether there was a significant difference between the decisions of male and female participants. Accordingly, no statistically significant difference was found between the male and female participants in all three experiments.