The Happiness Premium: The Impact of Emotion on Individuals´ Willingness to Pay in Online Auctions

Author

Lingyao Yuan ; Dennis, Alan R.

Author_Institution

Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

6-9 Jan. 2014

Firstpage

3120

Lastpage

3128

Abstract

Individuals\´ bidding behavior in online auctions has been the subject of research in multiple disciplines. Emotion has been shown to be an important factor affecting individual behavior and decision making but we know little about its effects on online bidding. A lab experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of positive emotion on individuals\´ willingness to pay in online auctions. We found that individuals with mildly positive emotion bid more than those with neutral emotion, that is, they paid a "happiness premium" of about 10%. The effect size is medium (Cohen\´s d=.41). This study contributes to electronic commerce literature by identifying emotion as an important factor affecting individual online auction behavior. The findings provide guidance to auction websites interface design. By incorporating emotion content, websites can increase bids by influencing consumers\´ positive emotion.

Keywords

Web sites; consumer behaviour; decision making; electronic commerce; human factors; psychology; tendering; user interfaces; auction Web sites interface design; consumer positive emotion content; decision making; electronic commerce; happiness premium; individual bidding behavior; individual willingness to pay; online auction behavior; online bidding; Atmospheric measurements; Cameras; Context; Decision making; Portable computers; Psychology; e-commerce; emotion; online bidding;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

System Sciences (HICSS), 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HICSS.2014.387

Filename

6758989