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Position Effects in Choice from Simultaneous Displays: A Conundrum Solved

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  • Maya Bar-Hillel

Abstract

From drop-down computer menus to department-store aisles, people in everyday life often choose from simultaneous displays of products or options. Studies of position effects in such choices show seemingly inconsistent results. For example, in restaurant choice, items enjoy an advantage when placed at the beginning or end of the menu listings, but in multiple-choice tests, answers are more popular when placed in the middle of the offered list. When reaching for a bottle on a supermarket shelf, bottles in the middle of the display are more popular. But on voting ballots, first is the most advantageous position. Some of the effects are quite sensible, while others are harder to justify and can aptly be regarded as biases. This paper attempts to put position effects into a unified and coherent framework, and to account for them simply, using a small number of familiar psychological principles.

Suggested Citation

  • Maya Bar-Hillel, 2015. "Position Effects in Choice from Simultaneous Displays: A Conundrum Solved," Discussion Paper Series dp678, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    • Handle: RePEc:huj:dispap:dp678
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    File URL: http://ratio.huji.ac.il/sites/default/files/publications/dp678JournalVer.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Eran Dayan & Maya Bar-Hillel, 2011. "Nudge to nobesity II: Menu positions influence food orders," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 6(4), pages 333-342, June.
    2. Bar-Hillel M. & Attali Y., 2002. "Seek Whence: Answer Sequences and Their Consequences in Key-Balanced Multiple-Choice Tests," The American Statistician, American Statistical Association, vol. 56, pages 299-303, November.
    3. Maya Bar-Hillel, 2011. "Location, Location, Location: Position Effects in Choice Among Simultaneously Presented Options," Discussion Paper Series dp580, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    4. Selin Atalay & H. Onur Bodur & Dina Rasolofoarison, 2012. "Shining in the Center: Central Gaze Cascade Effect on Product Choice," Post-Print hal-00758534, HAL.
    5. Maya Bar-Hillel & Ro`i Zultan, 2011. "We sing the praise of good displays: How gamblers bet in casino roulette," Discussion Paper Series dp585, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    6. Maya Bar-Hillel & Eyal Peer & Alessandro Acquisti, 2014. ""Heads or Tails?" - A reachability bias in binary choice," Discussion Paper Series dp657, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    7. Eran Dayan & Maya Bar-Hillel, 2011. "Nudge to nobesity II: Menu positions influence food orders," Discussion Paper Series dp581, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    8. Atalay , Selin & Onur Bodur , H. & Rasolofoarison , Dina, 2012. "Shining in the Center: Central Gaze Cascade Effect on Product Choice," HEC Research Papers Series 978, HEC Paris.
    9. James Sundali & Rachel Croson, 2006. "Biases in casino betting: The hot hand and the gambler's fallacy," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 1, pages 1-12, July.
    10. Paul Rozin & Sydney Scott & Megan Dingley & Joanna K. Urbanek & Hong Jiang & Mark Kaltenbach, 2011. "Nudge to nobesity I: Minor changes in accessibility decrease food intake," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 6(4), pages 323-332, June.
    11. A. Selin Atalay & H. Onur Bodur & Dina Rasolofoarison, 2012. "Shining in the Center: Central Gaze Cascade Effect on Product Choice," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(4), pages 848-866.
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    Cited by:

    1. Matthew P. Taylor, 2020. "Liking the long-shot … but just as a friend," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 245-261, December.
    2. Maya Bar-Hillel, 2016. "Reply to Rodway, Schepman & Thoma (2016)," Discussion Paper Series dp699, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    3. Wolff, Irenaeus, 2021. "The lottery player’s fallacy: Why labels predict strategic choices," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 16-29.
    4. Zhuo, Shi & Ratajczak, Michael & Thornton, Katie & Jones, Phil & Jarchlo, Ayla Ibrahimi & Gold, Natalie, 2023. "Testing the impact of overt and covert ordering interventions on sustainable consumption choices: a randomised controlled trial," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117705, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. E. Reijnen & S. J. Kühne & H. M. Gugelberg & A. Crameri, 2019. "Nudged to a Menu Position: The Role of “I’m Loving It”!," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 441-453, September.
    6. Irenaeus Wolff, 2017. "Lucky Numbers in Simple Games," TWI Research Paper Series 107, Thurgauer Wirtschaftsinstitut, Universität Konstanz.
    7. Dellaert, B.G.C. & Johnson, E.J. & Baker, T., 2019. "Choice Architecture for Healthier Insurance Choices: Ordering and Partitioning Can Improve Decisions," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2019-008-MKT, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    8. Esther Ulitzsch & Steffi Pohl & Lale Khorramdel & Ulf Kroehne & Matthias Davier, 2022. "A Response-Time-Based Latent Response Mixture Model for Identifying and Modeling Careless and Insufficient Effort Responding in Survey Data," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 87(2), pages 593-619, June.
    9. Dena Yadin & Inbal Yahav & Lior Zalmanson & Nira Munichor, 2024. "Resolving the Ethical Tension Between Creating a Civil Environment and Facilitating Free Expression Online: Comment Reordering as an Alternative to Comment Moderation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(2), pages 261-283, June.
    10. Brian A. Polin & Eyal Ben Isaac & Itzhak Aharon, 2021. "Patterns in manually selected numbers in the Israeli lottery," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 16(4), pages 1039-1059, July.
    11. Sadowski, Sebastian & Fennis, Bob M. & van Ittersum, Koert, 2025. "All the cues we cannot see: How reward-driven distractors render consumers insensitive to assortment complexity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    12. Arai, Real & Okazawa, Ryosuke, 2025. "Is it advantageous to be first? Evidence from a TV comedy program," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    13. Tong V. Wang & Rogier J. D. Potter van Loon & Martijn J. van den Assem & Dennie van Dolder, 2016. "Number preferences in lotteries," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 11(3), pages 243-259, May.
    14. Steven Glazerman & Ira Nichols-Barrer & Jon Valant & Jesse Chandler & Alyson Burnett, "undated". "Nudging Parents to Choose Better Schools: The Importance of School Choice Architecture," Mathematica Policy Research Reports dd5063086be143fb75deb193b, Mathematica Policy Research.
    15. Esther Ulitzsch & Steffi Pohl & Lale Khorramdel & Ulf Kroehne & Matthias von Davier, 2024. "Using Response Times for Joint Modeling of Careless Responding and Attentive Response Styles," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 49(2), pages 173-206, April.

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