{
  "title": "Free offers: what a zero price changes in a choice",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/offre-gratuite-ce-que-le-prix-nul-change-au-choix-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2025-05-09",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "A free offer is not always evaluated as simply a cheaper offer. Research suggests distinguishing the appeal of a zero price from the economic value of the choice.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Decision-making",
  "place": {
    "name": "Lugano",
    "region": "Tessin",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "Kristina Shampanier, Nina Mazar and Dan Ariely (2007, Marketing Science) show experimentally that reducing a price to zero can shift choices in ways that the price reduction alone cannot explain."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A price that is more than an amount",
      "point": "Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (1979, Econometrica) propose a model of risky decisions in which outcomes are evaluated relative to a reference point, with different sensitivity to gains and losses."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The hasty conclusion",
      "point": "One might conclude that free offers should always be viewed with suspicion."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What the evidence does not establish",
      "point": "The cited experiments do not allow us to quantify the effect of free offers in a bank, a fashion business or a trading company."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Lugano",
      "point": "Within SHR's “[Decision-making](/formation-prise-de-decision-lugano)” programme, an exercise applicable in Lugano is to examine an offer with a free component: a banking software trial, delivery in fashion, a documentation service in trading or a management tool in an Italian-speaking family SME."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Ariely",
      "year": "2007",
      "source": "Marketing Science"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Tversky",
      "year": "1979",
      "source": "Econometrica"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 459,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-Training-Decision-Making-Lugano-offre-gratuite-ce-que-le-prix-nul-change-au-choix-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/offre-gratuite-ce-que-le-prix-nul-change-au-choix",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/offre-gratuite-ce-que-le-prix-nul-change-au-choix-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/offre-gratuite-ce-que-le-prix-nul-change-au-choix-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/offre-gratuite-ce-que-le-prix-nul-change-au-choix-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation-prise-de-decision-lugano",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/lugano",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}