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Portrait of Erik Wengström. Photo.

Erik Wengström

Professor, Director of Doctoral studies, Department of Economics

Portrait of Erik Wengström. Photo.

Differences Attract : An Experimental Study of Focusing in Economic Choice

Author

  • Ola Andersson
  • Jim Ingebretsen Carlson
  • Erik Wengström

Summary, in English

Several behavioural models of choice assume that decision makers place more weight on attributes where options differ more, an assumption we test in a set of experiments. We find that subjects are more likely to choose an option when we add options increasing the maximal difference in the original option's strongest attribute, suggesting that the decision maker's focus is drawn to attributes with a high spread. Additional experiments corroborate this finding. Still, we document that the focusing effect diminishes when options are presented using numbers instead of graphs or when subjects are forced to wait before submitting their answers.

Department/s

  • Lund University

Publishing year

2021-10

Language

English

Pages

2671-2692

Publication/Series

Economic Journal

Volume

131

Issue

639

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Economics

Keywords

  • C91 - Laboratory
  • Individual Behavior
  • D03 - Behavioral
  • Microeconomics
  • Underlying Principles
  • D12 - Consumer Economics
  • Empirical Analysis

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0013-0133