Precommitment Bias in the Evaluation of a Single Option: the Importance of Evaluative Disposition

Bond, Samuel; Carlson, Kurt; Tanner, Margaret Meloy,J. Edward Russo,Rob

Precommitment Bias in the Evaluation of a Single Option: the Importance of Evaluative Disposition

Precommitment Bias in the Evaluation of a Single Option

Samuel D. Bond¹, Kurt A. Carlson¹, Margaret G. Meloy², J. Edward Russo³,Robin J. Tanner¹

¹Duke University ²Penn State University ³Cornell University

Drawing from coherence-based accounts of decision processing, we propose that individuals engaged in a singular evaluation task will form an initial assessment of favorability. Consequently, the evaluation of subsequent information will be biased in order to cohere with this initial disposition. Three experiments tested this hypothesis: initial disposition was manipulated (Studies 1 and 3) or measured (Study 2), and attribute ratings were collected as indicators of information distortion. Results indicated that attribute evaluations were biased to favor initial dispositions. These findings suggest that precommitment bias extends to a single-option setting and is driven by the emergence of an evaluative disposition.

Citation:

Samuel Bond, Kurt Carlson, and Margaret Meloy,J. Edward Russo,Rob Tanner (2006) ,"Precommitment Bias in the Evaluation of a Single Option: the Importance of Evaluative Disposition", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 33, eds. Connie Pechmann and Linda Price, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 245-246.

Authors

Samuel Bond, Duke University
Kurt Carlson, Duke University
Margaret Meloy,J. Edward Russo,Rob Tanner, Penn State University,Cornell University,Duke University

Volume

NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 33 | 2006

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