Attitude Toward the Low Price Claim (Self-Serving)

What it measures

A five-item scale assessing the degree to which a consumer believes a retailer's low price advertising claim is motivated by self-interest and deceptive intent rather than genuine price competitiveness. Items capture a range of manipulative motives — creating a false price impression, preventing price comparisons, and exploiting consumers with limited time or information. The scale measures attributions of cynical motive to price signalling and is suited to research examining consumer scepticism and distrust in retail pricing contexts.

Response format

7-point Likert (sentence completion)

Scale items

• ...to give customers the impression that its price is the lowest in the market.
• ...to attract customers so that they would not compare prices across stores.
• ...to take advantage of customers who lack price information.
• ...to take advantage of customers who do not have time to shop around.
• ...to lure customers even though it may not have the lowest price in the market.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Consistent alpha of .87 across both experiments — Ho, Ganesan & Oppewal (2011). VALIDITY: Not reported. SENTENCE COMPLETION FORMAT: Items are preceded by a scale stem identifying the retailer and the price claim context (e.g., 'This store is making the low-price claim...'); each item completes the sentence with a specific motive. The stem must be constructed by the researcher to suit the study context. Scale was developed for research on consumer response to price advertising signals in retail settings.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Ho, Hillbun Dixon, Shankar Ganesan, and Harmen Oppewal (2011). The impact of store-price signals on consumer search and store evaluation. Journal of Retailing, 87(2), 127–141.

Keywords