D91 - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision MakingNávrat zpět

According to the previous research about consumer behaviour, adding a decoy option (inferior option) to a set of original options often increases the individual’s preference for one option over the other original option. In this paper, the possible impact of income as a traditional demographic factor on the phenomenon is explored and discussed in the case of two product categories: washing machines and gym season-tickets. The analysed data were obtained in an online experiment with 260 participants where the presence of the decoy effect has been confirmed for the two mentioned product categories. The effect sizes for consumer groups based on the income level are tested by Chi-squared test. It was found out that not all income categories display the decoy effect and the income categories which exhibited the decoy effect differed between the two examined product categories. The strength of the decoy effect was proved to be dependent on the income category.