Are Consumers Acting Fairly Toward Companies?

Abstract

Fairness is an important component of all marketing exchange. While previous literature has focused on companies’ fair actions toward consumers, this article examines fair actions of consumers toward companies. Through a series of experiments, the authors investigate consumer fairness in the context of a pay-what-you-want pricing scheme. Results show that some consumers act fairly toward companies, even if they have no obligation to do so. For such consumers, there seems to be a self-signaling motive, in that they want to signal to themselves that they are fair. The authors also show that the distribution of price paid has a similar pattern to that of the dictator game in behavioral economics. Finally, the authors show that consumers can be influenced into taking fair actions by providing cues about “socially correct” actions others are taking. The reason for this is that many consumers act unfairly not because of their inherent propensity but because they believe others are doing the same. Implications for distributive justice in marketing exchange are discussed.