Journal of Consumer Psychology 1998
Price–Quality Trade‐Offs in Choice Versus Matching: New Insights Into the Prominence Effect
Abstract
Seemingly equivalent preference assessment procedures (e.g., choose between a 40¢ Safeway brand cola and a 55¢ Coke) and matching (e.g., a Safeway brand cola costs 40¢; at what price would a Coke be equally attractive to you?) generate systematically different estimates of consumers’ price–quality trade‐offs. This result appears consistent with the prominence effect, whereby choices tend to weigh the prominent attribute more heavily than matching answers. Whereas prior accounts of prominence effect phenomena focused on characteristics of the choice task, we propose that the manner in which respondents match options is a major determinant of the choice–matching discrepancy. We suggest that matching answers tend to rely on proportional matching , superficial matching of attribute value intervals, rather than the attribute value at which the considered options are equally attractive. We also identify the attribute and alternative to which matching is applied, as moderators of its difference from choice. Based on our analysis we demonstrate how the large choice–matching preference discrepancy can be significantly reduced and even reversed. We discuss implications of this research for our understanding of task effects on consumer price–quality trade‐offs and mechanisms that underlie the prominence effect.
- DOI
- 10.1207/s15327663jcp0704_02
- Sources
- openalex