Simply asking a person how much they are willing to pay for a product makes them significantly more likely to adopt and use it for years, even if they never buy it.
March 31, 2026
Original Paper
It’s All Fun and Games? The Persistent Impacts of Demand Elicitation Experiments
SSRN · 6496743
The Takeaway
The researchers found that the act of participating in a 'willingness-to-pay' experiment itself changed long-term behavior. This suggests that market research doesn't just measure demand—it creates it by increasing the salience and 'experience' of a product in a way that lasts for over three years.
From the abstract
Does simply eliciting demand have an impact on later behavior? We answer this question using a randomization evaluation of a willingness-to-pay (WTP) experiment itself, rather than the effect of winning or losing the auction. Comparing households in WTP villages and a pure control, as well as winners and non-winners of the auction, we followed household outcomes over a four-year period. Households in WTP villages adopted and used the technology over a three-year period, beyond its traditional sh