Differences Attract: An Experimental Study of Focusing in Economic Choice
(2016) In Working Papers- Abstract
- Several recent models of choice build on the idea that decision makers are more likely to choose an option if its attributes stand out compared to the attributes of the available alternatives. One example is the model of focusing by Köszegi and Szeidl (2013) where decision makers focus disproportionally on the attributes in which the available options differ more, implying that some attributes will be overweighted. We test this prediction in a controlled experiment. We find that subjects are more likely to make inconsistent choices when we manipulate the choice set by adding new options that are unchosen, but affect the maximal difference in attributes among the options. Hence, our results suggest that there exists a focusing effect.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5530b60c-02e2-482c-a7b3-cdf8c3eb8742
- author
- Andersson, Ola LU ; Ingebretsen Carlson, Jim LU and Wengström, Erik LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2016
- type
- Working paper/Preprint
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Individual decision making, focus, attention, salience, decoy, experiments, C91, D03, D12
- in
- Working Papers
- issue
- 2016:15
- pages
- 69 pages
- publisher
- Department of Economics, Lund University
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 5530b60c-02e2-482c-a7b3-cdf8c3eb8742
- date added to LUP
- 2016-08-09 12:18:22
- date last changed
- 2024-09-05 20:39:20
@misc{5530b60c-02e2-482c-a7b3-cdf8c3eb8742, abstract = {{Several recent models of choice build on the idea that decision makers are more likely to choose an option if its attributes stand out compared to the attributes of the available alternatives. One example is the model of focusing by Köszegi and Szeidl (2013) where decision makers focus disproportionally on the attributes in which the available options differ more, implying that some attributes will be overweighted. We test this prediction in a controlled experiment. We find that subjects are more likely to make inconsistent choices when we manipulate the choice set by adding new options that are unchosen, but affect the maximal difference in attributes among the options. Hence, our results suggest that there exists a focusing effect.}}, author = {{Andersson, Ola and Ingebretsen Carlson, Jim and Wengström, Erik}}, keywords = {{Individual decision making; focus; attention; salience; decoy; experiments; C91; D03; D12}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Working Paper}}, number = {{2016:15}}, publisher = {{Department of Economics, Lund University}}, series = {{Working Papers}}, title = {{Differences Attract: An Experimental Study of Focusing in Economic Choice}}, url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/194593700/WP16_15.pdf}}, year = {{2016}}, }