Household Shopping Behavior on Credit Card vs. Cash Payments

Manoj Thomas of Cornell University analyzed the shopping behavior of 1,000 households over six months. The research investigates how credit card payments, compared to cash, increase purchases of unhealthy food items rated as impulsive. Results from four studies support the hypothesis that the relative painlessness of card payments weakens impulse control.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between payment type and basket composition based on described shopping behavior.
• Analyzing the mediating effect of 'pain of payment' on impulse purchases based on the described experimental studies.
• Investigating chronic sensitivity to payment pain as a moderator for consumer spending based on the described follow-up experiments.

Strengths

• Analysis is based on actual shopping behavior of 1,000 households.
• Data collection spanned a period of six months.
• Hypotheses were tested across four separate studies.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent.
• The underlying dataset is closed license and not directly accessible.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Manoj Thomas, Cornell University

Collection Method

Analysis of actual shopping behavior and follow-up experiments.

Time Range

Data collection period of six months (specific dates unknown).

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Geographic coverage is not specified.