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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cognition
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1497372

Psychological Effects of Horizontal Price Display: How Left-Right Location Shapes Reference Price and Perceived Quality

Provisionally accepted
Eun Young Park Eun Young Park 1Jung Min Jang Jung Min Jang 2*
  • 1 Kookmin University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • 2 Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study examines the impact of display locations of regular and sale prices on reference price estimation, drawing on anchoring and adjustment theory and the left-to-right directionality in reading habits. It focuses on how the spatial positioning of the regular price relative to the discount price affects perceived quality and subsequently shapes reference price judgments. Conducted across both offline and online settings using varied product stimuli, three laboratory studies using comparative price advertisements that presented both prices on the same page consistently demonstrate that placing the regular price to the left of the discount price results in higher reference price estimations. The findings also confirmed that perceived product quality mediates the proposed effect. This research offers new insights into how the spatial placement of pricing information significantly affects consumer perception and decision-making, contributing to consumer psychology.

    Keywords: Price promotion, anchoring and adjustment theory, Reference price, Location effect, Product quality

    Received: 16 Sep 2024; Accepted: 06 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Park and Jang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jung Min Jang, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.