The Influence of Categorical Attributes on Choice Context Effects YOUNG-WON HA

This article documents the influence of categorical attributes on choice context effects. We demonstrate that the asymmetric dominance effect is attenuated by the introduction of a unique categorical feature in the competing option, while the tendency to prefer a middle option is not significantly affected. Our findings indicate that the presence of an important/salient categorical attribute facilitates “editing out ” of the asymmetrically dominated option, weakening the asymmetric dominance effect. Further, when initial category-based elimination is enforced, the asymmetric dominance effect and the tendency to prefer a middle option are both mitigated. One of the major conclusions from research on consumerdecision making is that consumer choice is context de-pendent (Bettman, Luce, and Payne 1998). Research has con-sistently shown that a newly introduced option to an existing choice set can have systematic impact on the relative pref-erences for the original options, depending on the nature of the new option. For example, Huber, Payne, and Puto (1982) demonstrate the attraction effect, whereby the addition of an asymmetrically dominated option to a two-option core set increases the choice share of the dominating option. Another robust choice context effect is the compromise effect (Si-monson 1989), in which the addition of an extreme option increases the choice share of the option that becomes the compromise or middle option. The attraction and compromise effects have generated a great deal of research interest, as they have significant theoretical and practical implications (Mourali, Böckenholt, and Laroche 2007). Despite the robustness of these phenomena, the attrac-tion and compromise effects have been typically demon-*Young-Won Ha and Sehoon Park are professors of marketing at th