Abstract
In the attraction effect, adding a dominated third option to a choice set of two options can reverse the preference for the original two options, and even increase one of the option’s choice share. This constitutes a violation of the axioms of regularity and independence from irrelevant alternatives, which are core properties of any choice model in which the utility of each option is stable across choice sets. Consequently, in the past 20 years, the attraction effect has driven the development of a set of influential models of multiattribute choice. However, Frederick, Lee, and Baskin (2014) have recently claimed that the attraction effect is only limited to options with numerical attributes, and does not hold for choices between naturalistic options (e.g., snacks, movies) — a claim which would severely undermine its theoretical importance. Huber, Payne, and Puto (2014) criticised Frederick et al.’s experiments, laying down a set of criteria that should be met by any experiment wishing to test for the attraction effect in real-world consumer choices. This article presents the first experiment that meets these criteria. The results show a precisely zero attraction effect.
Highlights
Imagine that you are having a nice meal in a restaurant, and you are looking at the two dessert options available on the menu: cheesecake and pecan pie
The attraction effect is important, because it poses a challenge to all choice models that rely on the assumption of simple scalability, which holds when options in a choice set can be given a scale value, and choice probability is represented as a monotone function of these scale values (Trueblood et al, 2013)
The attraction effect violates the property of independence from irrelevant alternatives, which requires that the relative choice probability of two options should not be affected by adding new options to the choice set (Pleskac, 2015)
Summary
Imagine that you are having a nice meal in a restaurant, and you are looking at the two dessert options available on the menu: cheesecake and pecan pie. You are torn between the creamy texture of the cheesecake This is an example of the attraction effect ( known as asymmetric dominance effect). The introduction of the apple pie (decoy) to the choice set makes you more likely to choose the pecan pie (target) over the cheesecake (competitor) In essence, it states that when the decision maker is indifferent between the target and the competitor (pecan pie and cheesecake in the example), the addition of an inferior decoy option that resembles the target (apple pie is similar to pecan pie but is less liked by the decision maker) increases the likelihood that the target will be chosen. The attraction effect can violate the regularity condition, which states that an option’s choice probability cannot increase when the choice set is extended (Luce, 1977; Tversky, 1972). The first multiattribute choice experiments demonstrating the attraction effect (e.g., Huber et al, 1982; Simonson & Tversky, 1992) almost exclusively used stylized stimuli with objectively defined attribute dimensions (e.g., cars presented as numerical values for gas mileage and ride quality). Trueblood et al (2013) have found evidence for the attraction effect in a perceptual choice experiment, where participants were asked to select the largest from three rectangles with varying widths and heights
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