Factors Moderating the Resolution of Preference Conflict in Family Automobile Purchasing

A comparison of husbands’ and wives’ preferences in 11 subdecisions of the automobile purchase decision revealed strong similarity in first choices but moderate discrepancy in total preference distributions. However, analysis of responses to measures of involvement, empathy, and recognized authority supports the hypothesis that these factors may reduce substantially the likelihood of conflict-resolving behavior, thus suggesting the need to add these variables to models of family decision making.