Making a Discount Feel Like a Favor

In consumer-seller negotiations, the seller’s goal is to complete the sale at a profitable price. We demonstrate that when a seller pairs a discounted offer with a favor request, consumer are more likely to accept the deal. We first show the effect of the favor request on acceptance of a discounted offer across multiple shopping scenarios and types of favor requests (experiment 1) and for negotiations involving real financial consequences (experiment 2). We then show that the favor request increases consumers’ felt need to reciprocate, which in turn reduces overpayment risk, thereby increasing deal acceptance (experiment 3). The favor request effect however, fades when consumers perceive the discounted offer as unworthy of reciprocity (experiment 4a) and when the requested favor is perceived as contextually inappropriate (experiment 4b).