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psychology
You can be nudged by an irrelevant third option.
Consumers are more likely to pick a higher-priced item when a slightly worse version is presented as a decoy.
This third option makes the target choice appear objectively superior by comparison. You do not evaluate the item on its own merits, but by its relationship to the decoy. The decoy frames the context to influence your final decision.
Your preferences are often decided by what you do not pick.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Huber, Payne, and Puto, 1982
- What the check found
- The claim accurately reflects the 'asymmetric dominance effect' introduced by Huber, Payne, and Puto (1982). While the evidence is well-established in the literature, replicability in field conditions varies.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.