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Social & Emotional InfluenceMember ingredient
Bottom-Dollar Effect
A purchase can feel more painful and less satisfying when it uses up the budget a person believes they have available.
Public evidence overview
One checked source, with its limits.
This preview is not the complete evidence base. Use it as a question to investigate in your own product, not as a prediction of what an individual will do.
Checked source previewAcademic paper
The Bottom Dollar Effect: The Influence of Spending to Zero on Pain of Payment and Satisfaction
Research-assisted source review
- What it supports
- Budget-exhausting purchases produced lower satisfaction in the tested tasks. The effect increased with earning effort and decreased with windfalls and shorter waits until replenishment; mediation analyses supported a role for pain of payment.
- Where it may not transfer
- All six studies form one published research programme. Controlled budgets and purchase tasks do not establish prevalence, effect size in a particular product, consequences for people in financial hardship or a valid method for inferring an individual user's budget state.
See how sources and limitations are checked in our editorial method.
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Practitioner includes the complete checked source set, study context and practical takeaways for this ingredient. The public overview above remains available without upgrading.