revious studies have consistently found that most consumers undertake relatively little prepurchase

search for durable goods and do even less price-comparison shopping despite the reported
importance of price to consumers' purchase decisions. This article proposes and tests two possible
explanations for why consumers' willingness to engage in price search does not increase
concomitantly with the price variation of durable goods. The first potential explanation, that
consumers simply underestimate the market price variation, was not supported. The second
possible explanation, which builds upon Weber's law of psychophysics and Thaler's transaction
utility theory, was supported. The data indicate that the psychological utility that a consumer derives
from saving a fixed amount of money is inversely related to the price of the item. In this case, even if
consumers believe that the price variation of more expensive items tends to be greater, their
motivation to spend time in price-comparison shopping for these items may not increase as much as
expected.