Antecedents of the Attraction Effect: An Information-Processing Approach

Many researchers have demonstrated the existence of an attraction effect that increases the choice probability of an existing “target” brand by the introduction of a relatively inferior “decoy” brand. This study develops a causal model that links antecedent variables with the attraction effect. We find that the attraction effect is explained to a considerable extent by changes in the following seven variables: (1) information relevance or stimulus meaningfulness, (2) product class knowledge, (3) task involvement, (4) perceived similarity between decoy and target, (5) relative brand preference, (6) share captured by decoy brand, and (7) perceived decoy popularity. The overall results were consistent across product classes studied, which included beer, cars, and TV sets. The popularity explanation for attraction effect, alluded to by Huber, Payne, and Puto (1982), was tested and found to hold true.

[1]  J. Keynes,et al.  The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. , 1936 .

[2]  J. Keynes,et al.  The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. , 1936 .

[3]  J. Keynes.  The General Theory of Employment , 1937 .

[4]  S. Asch.  Opinions and Social Pressure , 1955, Nature.

[5]  R. Duncan Luce,et al.  Individual Choice Behavior , 1959 .

[6]  G. Katona.  What is consumer psychology? , 1967, The American psychologist.

[7]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[8]  A. Tversky.  Intransitivity of preferences. , 1969 .

[9]  A. Tversky.  Elimination by aspects: A theory of choice. , 1972 .

[10]  P. Kotler.  Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control , 1972 .

[11]  Frank M. Bass,et al.  The Theory of Stochastic Preference and Brand Switching , 1974 .

[12]  Peter Wright.  Consumer Choice Strategies: Simplifying Vs. Optimizing , 1975 .

[13]  Stephen E. Fienberg,et al.  Discrete Multivariate Analysis: Theory and Practice , 1976 .

[14]  G. Urban,et al.  Pre-Test-Market Evaluation of New Packaged Goods: A Model and Measurement Methodology , 1978 .

[15]  M. Rothschild.  Marketing Communications in Nonbusiness Situations or why its so Hard to Sell Brotherhood like Soap , 1979, Journal of marketing.

[16]  T. Tyebjee.  Response Time, Conflict, and Involvement in Brand Choice , 1979 .

[17]  Steven M. Shugan.  The Cost Of Thinking , 1980 .

[18]  John R. Hauser,et al.  Intensity Measures of Consumer Preference , 1980, Oper. Res..

[19]  R. Hogarth,et al.  BEHAVIORAL DECISION THEORY: PROCESSES OF JUDGMENT AND CHOICE , 1981 .

[20]  C. W. Park,et al.  Familiarity and Its Impact on Consumer Decision Biases and Heuristics , 1981 .

[21]  Christopher P. Puto,et al.  Adding Asymmetrically Dominated Alternatives: Violations of Regularity & the Similarity Hypothesis. , 1981 .

[22]  John W Payne.  Contingent Decision Behavior: A Review and Discussion of Issues. , 1982 .

[23]  John W. Payne,et al.  Contingent decision behavior. , 1982 .

[24]  Joel Huber,et al.  Market Boundaries and Product Choice: Illustrating Attraction and Substitution Effects , 1983 .

[25]  John W. Payne,et al.  Effort and Accuracy in Choice , 1985 .

[26]  John G. Lynch.  Uniqueness Issues in the Decompositional Modeling of Multiattribute Overall Evaluations: An Information Integration Perspective , 1985 .

[27]  J. Zaichkowsky.  Measuring the Involvement Construct , 1985 .

[28]  G. Albaum,et al.  A Meta-Analysis of Effect Sizes in Consumer Behavior Experiments , 1985 .

[29]  John R. Hauser,et al.  Prelaunch forecasting of new automobiles : models and implementation , 1986 .

[30]  J. W. Hutchinson,et al.  Dimensions of Consumer Expertise , 1987 .

[31]  Allan D. Shocker,et al.  Toward understanding the attraction effect: The implications of product stimulus meaningfulness and familiarity. , 1987 .

[32]  I. Simonson,et al.  Choice Based on Reasons: The Case of Attraction and Compromise Effects , 1989 .

[33]  Peter M. Bentler,et al.  EQS : structural equations program manual , 1989 .

[34]  D. Scharfstein,et al.  Herd Behavior and Investment , 1990 .

[35]  H. Simon,et al.  What makes some problems really hard: Explorations in the problem space of difficulty , 1990, Cognitive Psychology.

[36]  Gabriel J. Biehal,et al.  Memory-Based Inferences during Consumer Choice , 1990 .

[37]  R. P. McDonald,et al.  Structural Equations with Latent Variables , 1989 .

[38]  L. Krishnamurthi,et al.  An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship Between Brand Loyalty and Consumer Price Elasticity , 1991 .

[39]  I. Png,et al.  Market segmentation, cannibalization, and the timing of product introductions , 1992 .

[40]  A. Tversky,et al.  Choice in Context: Tradeoff Contrast and Extremeness Aversion , 1992 .

[41]  A. Tversky,et al.  Choice in Context: Tradeoff Contrast and Extremeness Aversion , 1992 .