The Construction of Preference

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511618031

One of the main themes that has emerged from behavioral decision research during the past three decades is the view that people's preferences are often constructed in the process of elicitation. This idea is derived from studies demonstrating that normatively equivalent methods of elicitation (e.g., choice and pricing) give rise to systematically different responses. These preference reversals violate the principle of procedure invariance that is fundamental to all theories of rational choice. If different elicitation procedures produce different orderings of options, how can preferences be defined and in what sense do they exist? This book shows not only the historical roots of preference construction but also the blossoming of the concept within psychology, law, marketing, philosophy, environmental policy, and economics. Decision making is now understood to be a highly contingent form of information processing, sensitive to task complexity, time pressure, response mode, framing, reference points, and other contextual factors.

- Aa Reduce text
- Aa Enlarge text

View selected items
Save to my bookmarks
Export citations
Download PDF (zip)
Save to Kindle
Save to Dropbox
Save to Google Drive
Save content to
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .

To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Please be advised that item(s) you selected are not available.
You are about to save
Your Kindle email address

Please provide your Kindle email.

@free.kindle.com @kindle.com (service fees apply)

By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services

Page 1 of 2

First
« Prev
1
2
Next »
Last

Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-vi
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Contents
pp vii-x
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Contributors
pp xi-xiv
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Preface
pp xv-xvi
- By Cass R. Sunstein, Professor of Jurisprudence, Law School and the Department of Political Science, University of Chicago
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Acknowledgments
pp xvii-xviii
- By Sarah Lichtenstein, Founder and Treasurer, Decision Research, Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

I - INTRODUCTION
- By Sarah Lichtenstein, Founder and Treasurer, Decision Research, Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

1 - The Construction of Preference: An Overview
pp 1-40
- By Sarah Lichtenstein, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon, Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

II - PREFERENCE REVERSALS
- By Sarah Lichtenstein, Founder and Treasurer, Decision Research, Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

2 - Relative Importance of Probabilities and Payoffs in Risk Taking
pp 41-51
- By Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon, Sarah Lichtenstein, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

3 - Reversals of Preference Between Bids and Choices in Gambling Decisions
pp 52-68
- By Sarah Lichtenstein, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon, Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

4 - Response-Induced Reversals of Preference in Gambling: An Extended Replication in Las Vegas
pp 69-76
- By Sarah Lichtenstein, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon, Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

5 - Economic Theory of Choice and the Preference Reversal Phenomenon
pp 77-94
- By David M. Grether, Professor of Economics, California Institute of Technology, Charles R. Plott, Professor of Economics and Political Science, California Institute of Technology
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

III - PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF PREFERENCE REVERSALS
- By Sarah Lichtenstein, Founder and Treasurer, Decision Research, Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

6 - Contingent Weighting in Judgment and Choice
pp 95-121
- By Amos Tversky, Professor of Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Samuel Sattath, The Hebrew University, Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

7 - Cognitive Processes in Preference Reversals
pp 122-145
- By David A. Schkade, Chair in the Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego, Eric J. Johnson, Professor of Business, Columbia Business School, Columbia University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

8 - The Causes of Preference Reversal
pp 146-162
- By Amos Tversky, Professor of Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon, Daniel Kahneman, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

9 - Preference Reversals Between Joint and Separate Evaluations of Options: A Review And Theoretical Analysis
pp 163-191
- By Christopher K. Hsee, Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Marketing, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, George Loewenstein, Professor of Economics and Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Sally Blount, Dean of the Undergraduate College and the Abraham L. Gitlow Professor of Management, New York University Stern School of Business, Max H. Bazerman, Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

10 - Attribute-Task Compatibility as a Determinant of Consumer Preference Reversals
pp 192-219
- By Stephen M. Nowlis, Research Professor of Marketing, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Itamar Simonson, Professor of Marketing, Stanford Graduate School of Business
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

11 - Preferences Constructed From Dynamic Microprocessing Mechanisms
pp 220-234
- By Jerome R. Busemeyer, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Indiana University, Joseph G. Johnson, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Miami University, Ryan K. Jessup, Ph.D. candidate in psychology and cognitive science, Indiana University, Bloomington
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

IV - EVIDENCE FOR PREFERENCE CONSTRUCTION
- By Sarah Lichtenstein, Founder and Treasurer, Decision Research, Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

12 - Construction of Preferences by Constraint Satisfaction
pp 235-245
- By Dan Simon, Professor of Law, University of Southern California, Daniel C. Krawczyk, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, Keith J. Holyoak, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

13 - “Coherent Arbitrariness”: Stable Demand Curves Without Stable Preferences
pp 246-270
- By Dan Ariely, Luis Alvarez Renta Professor of Management Science, Sloan School of Management and at the Media Laboratory at MIT, George Loewenstein, Professor of Economics and Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Drazen Prelec, Professor of Management Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

14 - Tom Sawyer and the Construction of Value
pp 271-281
- By Dan Ariely, Luis Alvarez Renta Professor, Management Science at the Sloan School of Management and at the Media Laboratory at MIT, George Loewenstein, Professor of Economics and Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Drazen Prelec, Professor of Management Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

15 - When Web Pages Influence Choice: Effects of Visual Primes on Experts and Novices
pp 282-299
- By Naomi Mandel, Assistant Professor of Marketing, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Eric J. Johnson, Norman Eig Professor, Business at Columbia Business School, Columbia University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

16 - When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?
pp 300-322
- By Sheena S. Iyengar, Sanford C. Bernstein Associate Professor, Leadership and Ethics at Columbia University, Mark R. Lepper, Albert Ray Lang Professor, Psychology at Stanford University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

V - THEORIES OF PREFERENCE CONSTRUCTION
- By Sarah Lichtenstein, Founder and Treasurer, Decision Research, Paul Slovic, Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

17 - Constructive Consumer Choice Processes
pp 323-341
- By James R. Bettman, Burlington Industries Professor of Marketing, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Mary Frances Luce, Professor of Marketing, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, John W. Payne, Joseph J. Ruvane, Jr., Professor of Management and Marketing, Professor of Psychology, and Deputy Dean of The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

18 - Decision Making and Action: The Search for a Dominance Structure
pp 342-355
- By Henry Montgomery, Professor of Cognitive Psychology, Stockholm University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

19 - Pre- and Post-Decision Construction of Preferences: Differentiation and Consolidation
pp 356-371
- By Ola Svenson, Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Risk Analysis, Social and Decision Unit at Stockholm University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

20 - Choice Bracketing
pp 372-396
- By Daniel Read, Professor of Behavioral Economics, Durham Business School, University of Durham, George Loewenstein, Professor of Economics and Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Matthew Rabin, Edward G. and Nancy S. Jordan Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Page 1 of 2

First
« Prev
1
2
Next »
Last

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Total number of HTML views: 0

Total number of PDF views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

Total views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

The Construction of Preference

Book description

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Save Search

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

Accessibility Information