Change in your wallet, change your choice: The effect of the change-matching heuristic on choice

Having change in our wallet is quite common when we pay cash when shopping. This study examines the phenomenon whereby people choose to buy a product with a price that matches the amount of change they have in their wallets. The study uses a series of experiments to investigate whether this "change-matching heuristic" helps customers make purchase decisions. The findings confirm that the change-matching heuristic increases consumers' processing fluency. The findings also confirm that the compromise and attraction conditions may dilute the influence of the change-matching heuristic.