A cross-cultural study on the effect of decimal separator on price perception

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

The impact of decimal separator use in prices has not received attention in previous research. The present study examines the effect of the two worldwide prevailing separators, comma and dot, on the price perception of Portuguese and US consumers via an anchoring and adjustment cognitive processing model. Both separator types were characterized in terms of their visual salience, either salient or non-salient, and contextual novelty, either familiar or novel. Price perception was measured in its negative role, as an outlay of economic resources. Applying a factorial design for multivariate testing of the hypothesized model which predicted lower price perception for salient and novel separators, the results indicated that the separators’ choice has no effect on its own. In turn, an interaction among the separators’ salience and novelty occurred mainly driven by two of the six presented products, possibly revealing limitations to the study. American consumers revealed generally higher levels of perceived prices than European. The study contributes by linking pricing and process numbering literature, providing several recommendations for studies to come.