TY - JOUR
T1 - Dominance Effects in the Wild
AU - Fridman, Ariel
AU - Amir, On
AU - Hansen, Karsten
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
PY - 2024/3/15
Y1 - 2024/3/15
N2 - In real-world marketplaces, one may encounter an alternative that is inferior to another one in the assortment. While the presence of such seemingly irrelevant inferior alternatives should ostensibly have no influence on consumers’ decisions, an extensive literature using stylized lab experiments has found that, surprisingly, their presence matters. Specifically, the dominance effect suggests that the presence of an inferior alternative shifts consumer’s preferences toward the alternative made to be superior. However, null results in some recent lab studies and a lack of real-world evidence call into question whether, when, and how the effect exists. In this work, we find clear evidence that dominance matters in the wild. We also identify an important moderator for the dominance effect—preference uncertainty—and test it in both a real-world marketplace for digital freelance services and a lab experiment. Further, we find evidence for additional moderators that help explain how the effect works, including the count of dominated alternatives and the magnitude of dominance, consistent with a perceptual mechanism. This work is the first to use consequential field data to shed light on when and why the dominance effects occur, with implications for marketers, choice architects, user interface designers, and policymakers.
AB - In real-world marketplaces, one may encounter an alternative that is inferior to another one in the assortment. While the presence of such seemingly irrelevant inferior alternatives should ostensibly have no influence on consumers’ decisions, an extensive literature using stylized lab experiments has found that, surprisingly, their presence matters. Specifically, the dominance effect suggests that the presence of an inferior alternative shifts consumer’s preferences toward the alternative made to be superior. However, null results in some recent lab studies and a lack of real-world evidence call into question whether, when, and how the effect exists. In this work, we find clear evidence that dominance matters in the wild. We also identify an important moderator for the dominance effect—preference uncertainty—and test it in both a real-world marketplace for digital freelance services and a lab experiment. Further, we find evidence for additional moderators that help explain how the effect works, including the count of dominated alternatives and the magnitude of dominance, consistent with a perceptual mechanism. This work is the first to use consequential field data to shed light on when and why the dominance effects occur, with implications for marketers, choice architects, user interface designers, and policymakers.
KW - context effects
KW - dominance effects
KW - field data
KW - preference uncertainty
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85187991235&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/jcr/ucad061
DO - 10.1093/jcr/ucad061
M3 - Article
SN - 0093-5301
VL - 50
SP - 1117
EP - 1135
JO - Journal of Consumer Research
JF - Journal of Consumer Research
IS - 6
M1 - ucad061
ER -