Frontiers: Shrinkflation Aversion: When and Why Product Size Decreases Are Seen as More Unfair than Equivalent Price Increases
References
- (2022) ‘Shrinkflation’—A deceptive marketing practice. Commission protection for consumers against the phenomenon of product downsizing. Accessed June 8, 2023, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2022-002635_EN.html.Google Scholar
- (2022) Africa’s inflation among region’s most urgent challenges. Accessed December 22, 2022, https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2022/10/20/africas-inflation-among-regions-most-urgent-challenges.Google Scholar
- (2006) Price fairness: Good and service differences and the role of vendor costs. J. Consumer Res. 33(2):258–265.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2003) Consumer perceptions of price (un)fairness. J. Consumer Res. 29(4):474–491.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1946) Perception of objects. Amer. J. Phys. 14:99–107.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) What is shrinkflation and what does it mean for your favorite supermarket items? Accessed December 22, 2022, https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/what-is-shrinkflation/.Google Scholar
- (2014) Consumer response to package downsizing: Evidence from the Chicago ice cream market. J. Retailing 90(1):1–12.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2009) Supersize in one dimension, downsize in three dimensions: Effects of spatial dimensionality on size perceptions and preferences. J. Marketing Res. 46(6):739–753.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) Inflation in Europe reaches a record 10.7% as officials face hard options. New York Times (October 31), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/business/economy/eurozone-inflation-gdp.html.Google Scholar
- (2007) Fairness and channel coordination. Management Sci. 53(8):1303–1314.Link, Google Scholar
- (2022) Rapidly diminishing sensitivity and discrete sensitivity: Explaining people’s sensitivity to outcomes across decisions. J. Experiment. Psych. Gen. 151(9):2115–2127.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2014) Implementing price increases in turbulent economies: Pricing approaches for reducing perceptions of price unfairness. J. Bus. Res. 67(1):2732–2737.Crossref, Google Scholar
- Friedman EMS, Toubia O (2022) Pricing fairness in a pandemic: Navigating unintended changes to value or cost. J. Assoc. Consumer Res. 7(1):89–97.Google Scholar
- (1951) Perceived size and distance in visual space. Psych. Rev. 58(6):460–482.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2004) Downsizing price increases: A greater sensitivity to price than quantity in consumer markets. Preprint, submitted June 30, https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.559482.Google Scholar
- (1950) The influence of suggestion on the relationship between stimulus size and perceived distance. J. Psych. 29(1):195–217.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis (Guilford Press, New York).Google Scholar
- (2023) France’s Carrefour puts up ‘shrinkflation’ warning signs. Accessed October 2, 2023, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66809188.Google Scholar
- (2022) Here’s the inflation breakdown for October 2022—in one chart. Accessed December 22, 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/10/heres-the-inflation-breakdown-for-october-2022-in-one-chart.html.Google Scholar
- (2014) Product downsizing and hidden price increases: Evidence from Japan’s deflationary period. Asian Econom. Policy Rev. 9(1):69–89.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1986) Fairness as a constraint on profit seeking: Entitlements in the market. Amer. Econom. Rev. 76(4):728–741.Google Scholar
- (2024) Consumers’ preference for downsizing over package price increases. J. Econom. Management Strategy 33(1):25–52.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2001) Pizzas: π or square? Psychophysical biases in area comparisons. Marketing Sci. 20(4):405–425.Link, Google Scholar
- (2022) Consumers’ sensitivity to ‘shrinkflation’ is leading them to switch food & beverage brands. Accessed December 22, 2022, https://morningconsult.com/2022/08/29/consumer-sensitivity-to-shrinkflation/.Google Scholar
- (1969) The Mechanisms of Perception (Routledge, London).Google Scholar
- (1993) Incorporating fairness into game theory and economics. Amer. Econom. Rev. 83(5):1281–1302.Google Scholar
- Reddit (2023) Shrinkflation: When product sizes shrink, but prices stay the same. Accessed May 30, 2023, https://www.reddit.com/r/shrinkflation/.Google Scholar
- (1950) A note on depth perception, size constancy, and related topics. Psych. Rev. 57(5):314–317.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) Inflation is here to stay despite rising interest rates, Asian business leaders warn. Accessed December 22, 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/27/inflation-is-here-to-stay-asian-business-leaders-warn.html.Google Scholar
- The Business Times (2021) Less product, same price: Companies use ‘shrinkflation’ to hide price increases. Accessed October 2, 2023, https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/consumer-healthcare/less-product-same-price-companies-use-shrinkflation-hide.Google Scholar
- (1964) Noise and Weber’s law: The discrimination of brightness and other dimensions. Psych. Rev. 71(4):314–330.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1834) De Pulsu, Resorptione, Auditu et Tactu: Annotationes Anatomicae et Physiologicae, Auctore [On Beat, Resorption, Hearing and Touch: Anatomical and Physiological Notes] (CF Koehler, San Diego, CA).Google Scholar
- (2004) The price is unfair! A conceptual framework of price fairness perceptions. J. Marketing 68(4):1–15.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Cheaper and smaller or more expensive and larger: How consumers respond to unit price increase tactics that simultaneously change product price and package size. J. Acad. Marketing Sci. 48:1075–1094.Crossref, Google Scholar

