How More Options Decrease the Compromise Effect: Investigating Boundary Conditions for the Compromise Effect in Travel Decisions

Abstract

Travelers often demonstrate the compromise effect—a tendency to choose the intermediate option(s) when facing difficult trade-off decisions. The compromise effect has been replicated in very specific settings where typically only two or three options were available. This research extends our understanding of the compromise effect by examining the impact of the number of options on travelers’ choices. Based on two different accounts (i.e., attribute distance account vs. decision complexity account), we predict that the compromise effect will be attenuated as the number of options in a choice set increases. Four experimental studies provide supporting evidence for this argument and support the attribute distance account as the main underlying mechanism. This research contributes to the extant tourism and travel choice literature by responding to the call to investigate the compromise effect in complex buying contexts.

Attraction and compromise effects under social exclusion

“…Similarly, cultural orientations affect thinking style (Nisbett et al , 2001), thus consumers from Eastern and Western cultures may react differently to these choice options. Third, the compromise effect is directly related to extremeness aversion (Kim et al , 2022; Neumann et al , 2016; Park et al , 2022; Simonson and Tversky, 1992). Extremeness aversion has commonly appeared in consumer decisions when it comes to the context of at least three options (Chernev, 2004) and shown to provide managerial implications for branding and pricing of retailers (Kivetz et al , 2004) and policy implications for obesity (Sharpe et al , 2008).…”

Panorama sobre turismo de bem-estar: status atual de pesquisas e temas emergentes

“…Letícia Cynara Santos-Silva Valério Souza-Neto Verônica Feder Mayer 29 Revista Acadêmica Observatório de Inovação do Turismo, v. 16, n. 3, dezembro/2022 A Figura 1 ajuda a entender por que os termos e espaços utilizados no turismo de saúde/bemestar podem ser intercambiáveis. É demonstrado uma ampla gama de produtos, serviços, atividades e tipologias e, dentro do espectro, os tipos de atributos de bem-estar revelam as preferências de diferentes perfis de consumidores e espaços turísticos distintos (PARK et al, 2022).…”

What drives preference for the compromise option? Disentangling position‐based versus attribute‐based effects

“…This “compromise effect,” or “extremeness aversion,” was first demonstrated by Simonson (1989) and has since received extensive empirical support (Chernev, 2004; Dhar et al, 2000; Kivetz et al, 2004; Pechtl, 2009; Simonson & Tversky, 1992; for a review, see Neumann et al, 2016). Recent research has also identified several boundary conditions for the effect (e.g., Kim & Kim, 2016; Mao, 2016; Park et al, 2022; Pettibone, 2012; Pocheptsova et al, 2009; Simonson & Nowlis, 2000).…”