Procedure Invariance Violations in Consumer Behavior

Abstract

Although prior studies have widely examined how descriptions of task environment influence consumer preference, the effect of procedure elicitation methods on consumer preference have not yet been explored thoroughly. To address this issue, this three-essay dissertation investigates the effect of preference elicitation methods on consumer preference in three different domains: anchoring, risky choice and decision framing. This dissertation also uses a multi-method approach that includes behavioral experiments, meta-analysis, p-curve analysis, eye-tracking, and computational modeling to deeply understand the impact, robustness, and underlying processes of procedural manipulations in the three domains. The overall results show that changes in decision processes not only affect consumer preference immediately in all three domains, but also have long-term effects. Critically, these findings imply that the impact of procedural manipulations on consumer preference is robust and is not a short-term distortion of preference. Thus, marketers and policy makers can utilize different procedural elicitation methods to shape long-term consumer preferences, and need to consider decision procedure in setting up marketing strategies. Limitations and future research directions are discussed in the last chapter of the dissertation.