The article discussed in the previous exercise also describes an experiment in which 35 students were asked to price two boxes of silverware: a 24-piece box with all 24 pieces intact, and a 40-piece box with only 31 pieces of silverware intact. Each student indicated the amount s/he would be willing to pay for each box. The sample average amount students were willing to pay for the 24-piece and 40-piece boxes were $29.70 and $32.03, respectively. The standard deviation of the differences was $6.41. Test the hypothesis that, on average, students are willing to pay more for the box with more silverware even though it was not completely intact. Use a .05 level of significance.

Data From previous Exercise

The article “Less Is Better: When Lowvalue Options Are Valued More Highly than High-value Options” (J. Behav. Decis. Making 1998: 107–121) describes several experiments pertaining to consumer behavior. In one experiment, 46 students were split into two groups: 23 who were shown 7 oz of ice cream in a 5-oz cup (the cup was overflowing) and 23 who were shown 8 oz of ice cream in a 10-oz cup (there was a lot of empty space left over). Each student was then asked, “What is the most you are willing to pay for a serving?” The researchers theorized that students would pay more, on average, for the overflowing cup even though it contained less ice cream.