Product Moral Harmfulness and Price Fairness: Consumer Vulnerability's Moderating and Mediating Effects

*****Abstract: This research examines how perceived product moral harmfulness interacts with consumer vulnerability to influence price fairness perceptions. Drawing on moral foundations theory and the moral harm model of price fairness, the study proposes that consumers engage in dual moral assessments when evaluating pricing strategies, simultaneously considering the moral implications of the product being sold and the vulnerability of the targeted consumers. When both assessments trigger moral concern, fairness reactions amplify beyond the independent effects of either factor. A controlled experiment (N = 407, MTurk) manipulated product type (beer vs. juice) and targeting strategy (vulnerable vs. control consumers) and reveals an 81.8% moral amplification effect (95% CI [20.4%, 205.4%]) when harmful products target vulnerable consumers. Beneficial products receive higher price fairness ratings than harmful products (d = 0.82), with this difference increasing substantially when pricing strategies targeted vulnerable consumers. Parallel mediation analysis indicates that consumer impact perceptions served as the primary mechanism (accounting for 101.3% of the total effect), alongside secondary pathways through perceptions of harmfulness (88.5%) and vulnerability (30.8%). These findings advance understanding of moral judgment in pricing contexts by demonstrating that fairness evaluations are fundamentally shaped by the intersection of product moral harmfulness and consumer vulnerability, underscoring amplified concerns when harmful products target vulnerable populations. *****Keywords: price fairness, consumer vulnerability, moral harmfulness, moral amplification, pricing strategies, moral foundations theory, consumer behavior, SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) *****Subjects: #PriceFairness #ConsumerVulnerability #MoralHarmfulness #MoralAmplification #PricingStrategies #MoralFoundationsTheory #ConsumerBehavior #MarketingEthics #VulnerableConsumers #BehavioralPricing #GEMS #GlobalEmpiricalMarketingStudies #SDG12 #SDG10 #SDG3 #SustainableConsumption #EthicalPricing #ConsumerEthics *****Citing This Article: Chan, Y. F. (2026). 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