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Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Oct/Nov 2020). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [8] Availability and Representativeness of choice heuristics: A heuristic is a mental shortcut helping us to make quick decisions. Availability heuristics refers to how easy it is to bring things to mind, often of benefit but based on faulty thinking in some cases. For example, you buy a particular brand of car that keeps breaking down and so in future you look unfavourably on that brand even in the absence of statistics to the contrary – our own car experience is more available to us. Representative heuristics allow us to make our choices by comparing with best known (most representative) examples. For example, a new smartphone is released and we compare it to the market leader. The more similar the new product is the more likely we are to believe it to be a quality item too. This may even go so far as companies releasing products in very similar packaging to the market leader.
2. [8] Wansink et al. (1998): An investigation into what makes people buy a certain number of units in a series of field and lab experiments. 1. A field experiment in 86 different shops for one week found that multiple pricing (‘6 for $3’) increased sales by 32% across the shops compared to single unit pricing (‘On sale – 50c each’). 2. A field experiment in 3 supermarkets in Iowa over 3 days, with a small discount of 12% on Campbells soup, found that purchase limits (e.g., ‘4 max’ or ‘12 max’) increased average purchase quantity (e.g., 7 cans for ‘12 max’) compared to no limit (average 3.3 cans). 3. Lab experiments using 120 undergraduates with 'selling anchors' showed that intention to purchase indicators increased across all discount levels, and using an expansion anchor (e.g., 'buy for all your friends') increased sale intentions across a range of purchase-quantity limits.
3. [8] Knutson et al. (2007): A total of 26 participants underwent an fMRI scan whilst being presented with various images (product, price, choice). Preference for the product correlated with activation in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), the mesial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) activation related to price differentials (suitably priced) but deactivated if price was too high. Purchasing correlated with deactivation of the insula, which was activated by perceived high prices. This enables purchasing decisions to be tracked neurally.
4. [10] Named issue – ecological validity: In the Knutson et al. study, participants were in an artificial setting of an fMRI machine, although shown genuine products; actual purchase decisions do not take place in such a setting. In the Wansink field studies, ecological validity is very high as actual customers were choosing products. Ecological validity is lower in the lab experiments as participants may not actually choose to buy the various products in 'real life'.
5. [10] Self-reports.
6. [10] Usefulness/practical applications.
7. [10] Situational/individual explanations.
8. [10] Ethics.
9. [10] Methods.