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Motivated Inferences of Price and Quality in Healthcare Decisions

Publication ,  Journal Article
Prinsloo, E; Barasz, K; Ubel, PA
Published in: Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
April 1, 2022

Policy makers have increasingly advocated for healthcare price transparency, whereby prices are made salient before services are rendered. While such policies may empower consumers, they also bring price to the forefront of healthcare choices as never before, with yet underexplored consequences on consumers’ decisions. This article explores one: using price as a signal of quality. Five experiments demonstrate how healthcare consumers may come to form price-based inferences of quality and explore how these inferences may vary as a function of individuals’ health insurance coverage. Specifically, relative to high-coverage consumers (for whom insurance covers a relatively greater portion of healthcare expenses), low-coverage consumers (for whom insurance covers relatively less) tend to both choose lower-priced providers and perceive a weaker price-quality relationship, suggestive of motivated reasoning. Our work exposes one way in which price transparency policies may have divergent effects on low-versus high-coverage consumers, with direct implications for policy.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

DOI

EISSN

2378-1823

ISSN

2378-1815

Publication Date

April 1, 2022

Volume

7

Issue

2

Start / End Page

186 / 197

Related Subject Headings

  • 3506 Marketing
  • 1503 Business and Management
 

Citation

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Chicago
ICMJE
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Prinsloo, E., Barasz, K., & Ubel, P. A. (2022). Motivated Inferences of Price and Quality in Healthcare Decisions. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 7(2), 186–197. https://doi.org/10.1086/718452
Prinsloo, E., K. Barasz, and P. A. Ubel. “Motivated Inferences of Price and Quality in Healthcare Decisions.” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 7, no. 2 (April 1, 2022): 186–97. https://doi.org/10.1086/718452.
Prinsloo E, Barasz K, Ubel PA. Motivated Inferences of Price and Quality in Healthcare Decisions. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. 2022 Apr 1;7(2):186–97.
Prinsloo, E., et al. “Motivated Inferences of Price and Quality in Healthcare Decisions.” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, vol. 7, no. 2, Apr. 2022, pp. 186–97. Scopus, doi:10.1086/718452.
Prinsloo E, Barasz K, Ubel PA. Motivated Inferences of Price and Quality in Healthcare Decisions. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. 2022 Apr 1;7(2):186–197.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

DOI

EISSN

2378-1823

ISSN

2378-1815

Publication Date

April 1, 2022

Volume

7

Issue

2

Start / End Page

186 / 197

Related Subject Headings

  • 3506 Marketing
  • 1503 Business and Management