Decoy effect in food appearance, traceability, and price: Case of consumer preference for pork hindquarters

As a manifestation of bounded rationality, decoy effect occurs when adding a new choice option into an existing choice set increases the probability of some options in the original set being chosen. Decoy effect has been shown to exist widely in consumer purchasing decision-making regarding common consumer goods. However, few studies have explored decoy effect in consumer food choices. In a survey using pork hindquarter products, we identified decoy effect in food purchase behavior and the effect varied for different pork hindquarter attributes. Specifically, we showed that given the price, both pork appearance and traceability produced stronger decoy effect than price and traceability generated stronger decoy effect than appearance. This suggests that while consumers look for food quality and safety attributes in addition to price, these attributes may also lead to decoy effects. Our study provides implications for food marketing and better understanding of consumer food choices.