The Moderating Role of Decisiveness in the Attraction Effect

Abstract

This study examines decisiveness as a potential moderator of the attraction effect. In an online experiment, we find that even though decisiveness moderates the attraction effect, it also moderates the preference reversal in the absence of a decoy. This suggests that the moderating role of decisiveness in the attraction effect lies, at least partially, in moderating choice reversals unrelated to the decoy. In addition, our findings show that about one-third of the most decisive participants exhibit an attraction effect. These findings are inconsistent with a conceptualization of a moderate attraction effect, arguing that only indecisive agents exhibit the effect. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Changing Decisions: The Interaction between Framing and Decoy Effects

“…Individuals of all ages are susceptible to the decoy cognitive bias [ 18 ]. Extensive work has studied the factors influencing the decoy effect, such as the role of gender differences [ 19 ] and the role of decisiveness [ 20 ]. Recent studies provide models of rationalization with incomplete preferences that can provide further explanations for the decoy effect [ 21 , 22 ].…”