The Robustness of Mental Accounting Across 21 Countries

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ID: 320681
2026
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Abstract
Abstract First introduced four decades ago, the influential concept of mental accounting—how people mentally organize, evaluate, and track financial activities—posits that consumers often defy traditional economic rationality, treating money as non-fungible across discrete mental accounts. In this research, we present the first large-scale test of the replicability and generalizability of mental accounting effects, using a sample of 5,589 participants from 21 countries. Our results demonstrate that mental accounting effects are replicable, robust, and generalizable. Hierarchical Bayesian meta-analyses revealed a 100% replication rate for all tested scenarios, while unpooled analyses showed a 90.5% replication rate (133/147 effects). Further analysis found that effects observed in higher-income countries may be weaker in lower-income countries. Multidimensional scaling suggested that mental accounting effects vary along three interpretable dimensions that reflect social context (individual vs interactive decisions), decision perspective (deciding for self vs other), and role in price determination (setting vs evaluating prices). Across a diverse population and controlling for multiple factors, we show that consumers make decisions based on mentally-formed accounts that consistently diverge from their objective financial value.
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Authors Giulia Priolo, Federica Stablum, Martina Vacondio, Simone D’Ambrogio, Marta Caserotti, Beatrice Conte, Prisca De Roni, Hilda du Plooy, Vivian Darlene Grillo, Libera Ylenia Mastromatteo, Elisa Tedaldi, Filippo Toscano, Jesús Aguilar-Armijo, Parisa Ahmadi Ghomroudi, Lucian Alexa, M Oerbaek Andersen, Per Andersson, Karine Aoun Barakat, Carolina Barros, Ruggero Basanisi, Tara Beilner, Sergiu Burlacu, Thai Cao, Alessandra carella, Arianna Chiappi, Zafer Çiftçi, Claudia Civai, Alana Daly, Valdonė Darškuvienė, Marta De Pedis, Earle J Du Plooy, Mohammed El-Mir, Christian T. Elbæk, Sondos Elkot, Valeria Fanghella, Eman Farahat, Amy Greiner Fehl, Ama Pokuaa Fenny, Paul A G Forbes, Gemma Garbi, André Gonçalves, Sevias Guvuriro, Ali Hajian, Steve Heinke, Austin W Howard, Sudharsana Jagatheesh Jayanand, Peiran Jiao, Gabriela M. Jiga‐Boy, Alejandra Jordano de Castro, Tobias Kalenscher, Austėja Kažemekaitytė, Afreen S. Khalid, Kiana Kothe, Philip Krüger, Ngan Le Thi Kieu, Gintarė Leckė, Yanina Ledovaya, Mengyu Lim, Luca M Lüpken, Huong Mai Thi Xuan, Laura Mangold, Alfarisi Maulana, Maya Maze, Hajdi Moche, Zahra Moradi, Adel Moumin, Valeria Nava, Michelle J Y Neoh, Leonardo Nicolao, Hamza O K El HallaouiOueld, Sebastian Olschewski, Adobea Y. Owusu, Ahmet F. Ozates, Sofia Pelica, Sonja Perkovic, Ananda W M Puteri, Hagai Rabinovitch, Guilherme Ramos, Nicole Robitaille, Caroline Roux, Benjamin Scheibehenne, Martin Schoemann, Mohammad Seidisarouei, Sanjay Singh, Mustafa Zeyd Söyük, Liza Steiner, Amira TarekAl Rai, Berto Usman, Hannah van Alebeek, Mohammad Hossein Vazirian, Evgeniya Vedernikova, Janet L. Wijaya, Xinxin Zhu, Jichuan Zong, Leaf Van Boven, Stephan Dickert, Lorella Lotto, David J. Hardisty, Justin Pomerance, Beatriz Pereira
Journal journal of consumer research
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/jcr/ucag022
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucag022
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