Marketing Research Seminar - Johannes Boegershausen, Rotterdam School of Management

People with disabilities constitute 15% of the world population and hold a buying power of $1.9 trillion. However, few companies offer products tailored to the needs of this segment, making it important to understand how mass-market consumers react to innovations that target people with disabilities. Across nine studies  (N = 7926), we show that innovations that target consumers with disabilities are subjected to comparatively stronger moral scrutiny by mass-market consumers. Specifically, consumers find charging price premiums for innovative products less acceptable when they are targeted at people with disabilities. The aversion to targeting this segment only occurs in the presence of a price premium and persists even when firms provide cost justifications for the relatively higher prices. Drawing on research on disability stereotypes, we isolate pity for people with disabilities as a critical driver of these reactions. Variations in pity across disabilities are related to the acceptability of a price premium for adaptive innovations. These findings are suggestive of a novel form of paternalism against consumers with disabilities. Though benevolent in nature, this view may render the marketplace less inclusive for consumers with disabilities, as it could penalize companies that provide more options for this underserved segment.