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.
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.
It’s All Fun and Games? The Persistent Impacts of Demand Elicitation Experiments
SSRN · 6496743
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