Attraction to similar options: the Gestalt law of proximity is related to the attraction effect

Izakson, Liz; Zeevi, Yoav; Dino, Levy

doi:10.31234/osf.io/jvcg5

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Essentially, representational precision can be interpreted as the distances and degrees of overlap between the options in the mental attribute space, where a low precision can be compensated for by a larger objective distance. This prediction seems to be generally supported by existing manipulations of the objective distances in the attribute space in attraction effect choice sets ( [10,19,60]; but see [91]). Along the same lines, whenever the decoy is chosen in situations in which it is only slightly worse than the target, it comes at the expense of the target and not the competitor [19], suggesting that (at least on some trials) the two options cannot be distinguished and are perceived to be equally desirable.…”

Section: Empirical Predictions and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 62%

The elusiveness of context effects in decision making

Spektor

Bhatia

Gluth

2021

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

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Section: Empirical Predictions and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 62%

The elusiveness of context effects in decision making

Spektor

Bhatia

Gluth

2021

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

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“…. Indeed, several have argued that the attraction effect may be modulated by perceived similarity between the target and decoy (Evangelidis, Levav, & Simonson, 2018;Izakson, Zeevi, & Levy, 2020;Mishra, Umesh, & Stem, 1993). These perspectives might be sharpened by the modeling of similarity in terms of latent group inference as we do here.…”

Section: Non-monotonic Effect Of Decoy Distancementioning

confidence: 75%

A rational account of the repulsion effect

Bhui¹,

Xiang²

2021

Preprint

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The attraction effect occurs when the presence of an inferior option (the decoy) increases the attractiveness of the option that dominates it (the target). Despite its prominence in behavioral science, recent evidence points to the puzzling existence of the opposite phenomenon—a repulsion effect. In this paper, we formally develop and experimentally test a normative account of the repulsion effect. Our theory is based on the idea that the true values of options are uncertain and must be inferred from available information, which includes the properties of other options. A low-value decoy can signal that the target also has low value when both are believed to be generated by a similar process. We formalize this logic using a hierarchical Bayesian cognitive model that makes predictions about how the strength of the repulsion effect should vary with statistical properties of the decision problem. This theory may help account for several documented phenomena linked to the repulsion effect across both economic and perceptual decision making, as well as new experimental data. Our results shed light on the key drivers of context-dependent judgment across multiple domains and sharpen our understanding of when decoys can be detrimental.

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“…All data and code used in the analysis are available at OSF can be accessed at https://osf.io/ywa37/ ( 65 ).…”

Section: Data Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Valuations of target items are drawn towards unavailable decoy items due to prior expectations

Izakson,

Yoo,

Hakim

et al. 2024

PNAS Nexus

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When people make choices, the items they consider are often embedded in a context (of other items). How this context affects the valuation of the specific item is an important question. High-value context might make items appear less attractive because of contrast—the tendency to normalize perception of an object relative to its background—or more attractive because of assimilation—the tendency to group objects together. Alternatively, a high-value context might increase prior expectations about the item's value. Here, we investigated these possibilities. We examined how unavailable context items affect choices between two target items, as well as the willingness-to-pay for single targets. Participants viewed sets of three items for several seconds before the target(s) were highlighted. In both tasks, we found a significant assimilation-like effect where participants were more likely to choose or place a higher value on a target when it was surrounded by higher-value context. However, these context effects were only significant for participants’ fastest choices. Using variants of a drift-diffusion model, we established that the unavailable context shifted participants’ prior expectations towards the average values of the sets but had an inconclusive effect on their evaluations of the targets during the decision (i.e. drift rates). In summary, we find that people use context to inform their initial valuations. This can improve efficiency by allowing people to get a head start on their decision. However, it also means that the valuation of an item can change depending on the context.

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Attraction to similar options: the Gestalt law of proximity is related to the attraction effect

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

The elusiveness of context effects in decision making

The elusiveness of context effects in decision making

A rational account of the repulsion effect

Valuations of target items are drawn towards unavailable decoy items due to prior expectations

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