← all facts
decision
You choose the middle option to avoid extremes.
A third, inferior option can make the other choices more attractive.
If you are choosing between a small, cheap item and a large, expensive one, adding a medium-priced item that is clearly worse than the large one makes the large one look like a bargain. You do not value the item itself; you value the comparison. Your preference is created by the menu.
Your choices are being steered by the options you reject.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Huber, Payne, and Puto (1982)
- What the check found
- This describes the 'decoy effect' or 'asymmetric dominance effect.' Huber, Payne, and Puto (1982) is the seminal paper identifying this phenomenon.
- 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.