We investigate egocentric biases in mental accounting within the context of information-driven consumer seller relationships. Our research suggests that consumers keep “loose mental accounts” of exchange benefits and costs that are balanced when resource exchanges are either contingent or temporally integrated (i.e., exchanged in the same transaction). However, when non-contingent resource exchange is temporally separated (specifically when exchange benefits precede exchange costs), or when bias correction is impeded in the same transaction, consumers keep two mental accounts, assigning differential value to marketers’ versus their own resources. Consequently, consumers egocentrically devalue- and therefore feeling less obligated to reciprocate- firms’ benefit offerings. Download pdf.
