Improving Preference Assessment Through Pre-Exposure to Attribute Levels

EXTENDED ABSTRACT - This article introduces a new technique for improving preference assessment by reducing the influence of context on preferential choices. We propose that a decision maker who is exposed to relevant attribute levels will form spontaneous valuations, which will insulate the decision maker from the effects of context during subsequent preference assessment. Results from three studies support this hypothesis. Pre-exposure to product attribute levels undermined the impact of attribute priming, decision framing, and asymmetric dominance on preferential choices. A fourth study demonstrates that similar results obtain when decision makers pre-generate attribute levels from memory.

Citation:

Kurt A. Carlson and Samuel D. Bond (2005) ,"Improving Preference Assessment Through Pre-Exposure to Attribute Levels", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 32, eds. Geeta Menon and Akshay R. Rao, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 205-205.