Beyond Numbers: An Ambiguity–Accessibility–Applicability Framework to Explain the Attraction Effect

Abstract

The attraction effect (AE) occurs when the addition of an inferior alternative (i.e., a decoy) to a choice set increases the choice share of the alternative to which it is most similar (i.e., a target), a phenomenon that violates the regularity principle. The AE occurs reliably when the attribute values are represented numerically, but not when the stimuli are perceptual. Such conceptual replication failures indicate a lack of clarity about the mechanisms that produce the AE. The present research develops a framework—the 3A framework—that specifies the distinct functions of ambiguity, accessibility, and applicability in the choice process. These factors, and their attendant mechanisms, explain when and why the AE emerges. They also specify conditions under which the AE is attenuated. Seven main experiments and four supplementary experiments examine when and why the AE emerges with perceptual stimuli, provide support for the 3A framework, and offer insights about how to produce the AE in choice contexts involving perceptual stimuli.

Measuring Willingness to Pay: A Comparative Method of Valuation

“…Thus, unlike in Study 6a, the balancing step did make a difference in assessing WTP when the target and comparative products had different features and were therefore harder to compare. This is likely because comparing dissimilar stimuli requires more cognitive resources (e.g., He and Sternthal 2023; Nam, Wang, and Lee 2012), and the balancing step facilitates more thoughtful processing of the comparison.…”

Confidence in research findings depends on theory

“…The hypothesis is that choice is disambiguated by adopting an effort conservation goal that is accessible for numerical but not the more-complex perceptual information provided a means of documenting a perceptual attraction effect. It entailed reducing the effort required to make the decoy accessible as a comparison standard for the target and thus adoptable in making a choice (He & Sternthal, 2023). This framework has also been shown to account for why repeating a single persuasive message has a different effect than repeating different statements that are either truthful or false, and why the depletion effect and its reversal occur (Calder, He, & Sternthal, 2023).…”