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decision making
Your choice changes when an irrelevant option appears.
The decoy effect occurs when your preference between two choices shifts after a third, inferior option is introduced.
By adding a less attractive option, the choice that was previously mid-tier suddenly seems like a better value. The presence of the decoy provides a point of comparison that makes one original option look superior.
You are not choosing the best option, but the one that looks best by comparison.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Joel Huber and Christopher Puto, 1982
- What the check found
- Huber, Payne, and Puto (1982) are correctly identified as the originators of this concept, technically termed the asymmetric dominance effect.
- 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.