The Power and Limitations of Social Relational Framing for Understanding Consumer Decision Processes

The normative multiattribute utility model is not a good predictor of decision processes if consumers are reluctant to make difficult trade-offs, if they are averse to using a single metric (e.g., price or utility) to align noncomparable alternatives, and if there is a desire to take into account the identity of the actors involved (McGraw & Tetlock, 2005). Prescriptively, there may be some decision contexts (e.g., high-consequence consumer decisions) where such nonnormative behaviors are not in the best interest of the decision makers. Methods to encourage more normative decisionmaking are outlined including: (a) decision context mechanisms (e.g., the setting of default options or reference prices, the provision of an acceptable framing of the decision, or alternative response measures) and (b) consumer-based mechanisms (e.g., recommending the use of an agent, providing coping mechanisms, or providing social cues of acceptability).