Does $2.22 sound very different from $2.33? The answer is yes. In a soon-to-be-released study by Keith Coulter of Clark University and Robin Coulter of the University of Connecticut in The Journal of Consumer Research, research indicates that shoppers expect a much better deal when the price is $2.33.
In one experiment, people were told an original price and a sale price and later asked which sale price represented the bigger discount. Ignoring the math, people instead appeared to go by the sound of the sale price. Because $2.22 sounded