Cash or Card: Consumer Perceptions of Payment Modes - Scholarly ...

and notes are time and place specific, but argue that any token so used would also create a
psychological pattern.
This study proposes that the use of notes and coins as physical representations of monetary
value creates a visceral and somatic relationship that influences our perceptions of such
tokens and that these perceptions are different to those associated with electronic payment
modes, particularly debit card. Further, that the perceptions of the payment modes affect our
behaviour when used to effect commercial transactions. Accordingly, this study seeks to
answer the following questions:
(1) Do the cognitive and emotional elements that people associate with a cash based
payment mode differ from those associated with a debit card based payment mode?
(2) Is there a link between the cognitive and emotional elements that people associate
with payment modes and payment mode choice?
(3) Does the payment mode used affect the volume, value, brands/products purchased in
a single transaction? If so, how?
1.3: Conceptual Base
Accepting the premise that the use of notes and coins creates a psychological pattern and that
this pattern affects our perceptions suggests that the Framing Paradigm has relevance for this
study. The Framing Paradigm is used across diverse disciplines and applied to many contexts.
Its relevance for this study lies in the understanding that a frame is a set of perceptions that an
individual relies on to understand and to respond to a situation. It assumes that, people build
a series of mental filters through biological and cultural influences and that they use these
filters to make sense of the world. These filters are likely to be unconscious and are most
likely to enter consciousness when some incongruous element occurs and the frame needs to
be altered. In other words, we only become aware of the frames that we always use when
something forces us to replace one frame with another. Two aspects of framing that are used
by researchers (within behavioural economics) to explain payment mode effects are mental
accounting and anchoring. According to Thaler (1999) mental accounting is a process
whereby people code, categorize and evaluate economic outcomes. He argues that how
people subjectively frame a transaction in their mind will determine the benefits and/or the
degree of satisfaction they expect to receive. In relation to payment mode effects, the
premise is that physicality of the payment mode serves to influence outcome perceptions.
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