Erik Wengström
Professor, Director of Doctoral studies, Department of Economics
Differences Attract : An Experimental Study of Focusing in Economic Choice
Author
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