Concept · Pricing & Economics
Willingness to Pay
Origin: Van Westendorp / Conjoint Analysis
Biological Parallel
The marginal value theorem predicts when foraging animals should abandon a depleting resource patch. A bird feeding on insects in a tree has a maximum "willingness to pay" in time and energy—once the capture rate falls below what it could achieve by traveling to a new tree, it departs. This threshold is precisely analogous to consumer willingness to pay: the maximum cost (in time, effort, or calories) an organism will accept before seeking alternatives. Optimal foraging theory mathematically formalizes these biological pricing decisions.