Information Integration Theory Applied to Student Apartment Selection Decisions

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to apply theory and methodology developed in the study of information integration in psychology to the modeling of individual apartment decisions. In particular, two models that express the trade‐off relationships among three variables hypothesized to be influential in apartment selection are examined. Although it is not claimed that the variables included in the study are the only ones relevant to apartment selection, evidence is provided that they are considered to be the three most important in a preliminary analysis. The paper also discusses potential benefits of controlled experimentation and model estimation strategies.