The Worth: Dinner Companions

“How much would you pay for dinner with the guest of your choice?”

We asked people how much they’d pay to have dinner with the living person of their choice using an advanced measurement technique called Choice Based Valuation (see here for more details). This approach ingeniously avoids having to rely on people’s self-reported estimates, which are notoriously inaccurate.

The average willingness-to-pay was £27, and 25% of the sample would offer as much as £600 for the pleasure. The least enthused 25% would pay just £4.50. So let’s hope their chosen guest doesn’t mind pitching in for a £5 Co-op frozen meal deal.

When asked who they would choose, respondents were divided between their own family or friends (26%) and various celebrities (74%). For family or friends, fourteen percent chose their partner and others selected their children or parents. Weirdly a small fraction, presumably those with small children, chose to dine alone.

Out of those who chose famous figures the most popular dinner guests were the Queen, Stephen Fry and Barack Obama, respectively (see the chart). The next most popular were the three Davids – Beckham, Attenborough and Cameron. Though if you are headed out for a night with the PM you may want to avoid being piggy-in-the-middle at a Piers Gaveston Society reunion.