The impact of range extension on the attraction effect

Science is about corroborating empirical evidence, even in academic business research journals

“…The last partial/differentiated replication study, by Padamwar, Dawra, and Kalakbandi (2020), focuses on extending original findings about range extension significantly changing preference between core alternatives and the systematic amplification of attraction effect in both stylized and natural settings. The authors conduct three intra-studies using postgraduate college students and attempt to replicate their own empirical insights reported in studies 1 and 2 with conducting study 3.…”

Nudging for eco-friendly online shopping – Attraction effect curbs price sensitivity

“…Indeed, Huber et al (2014) suggest that context effects, like the attraction effect, are more likely to occur if people do not have strong preferences concerning the target product, and if the distribution of preferences for the two alternatives is approximately even. Another explanation is provided by a recent evaluation of the attraction effect (Padamwar et al, 2021) showing that range extension amplifies the attraction effect systematically, specifically, decoys placed closer to the target failed to produce an attraction effect. In Experiment 2, we extended the price ranges, and consequently the decoys were positioned farther from the targets, compared with Experiment 1.…”

“…For instance, Frederick et al (2014) found that the attraction effect only worked when all of the relevant product dimensions were expressed numerically, all effects disappeared when nonnumerical stimuli were used. In addition, research has showed that the more the decoy extends the range of the attribute on which the competitor (target) is superior, the greater the attraction effect (Padamwar et al, 2021). There is a lack of studies on the attraction effect in favour of environmentally friendly choices in an online environment, though attraction effects have been shown to induce pro-social behaviour in online environments (Tietz et al, 2016) and decoy effects to occur in online grocery stores (Fechner & Herder, 2021).…”

“…We expected that the proportion of eco-products would be higher in both of the nudged conditions compared to the control condition. In line with research showing the importance of range extension (Padamwar et al, 2021) we varied both price range (whether products were on the low or high end of the price range), and price difference (whether the difference between eco-friendly and regular products was small or large) to examine a wide set of real-life circumstances. This also allows for identification of limiting conditions relating to price range extension in the attraction condition.…”

Forty years of context effect research in marketing: a bibliometric analysis

“…Further research may also test phantom alternatives in the upscaling effect paradigm, or further elaborate effects arising from different decoy positions. For example, recent research (Padamwar et al 2018(Padamwar et al , 2021 highlights range effects in attraction and compromise effect paradigms that could, for example, be extended to phantom decoys.…”