Loading...
Gut thinking and eye tracking: Evidence for a central preference heuristic
Thoma, Volker Rodway, Paul Tamlyn, Guy
Thoma, Volker
Rodway, Paul
Tamlyn, Guy
Advisors
Editors
Other Contributors
Affiliation
EPub Date
Publication Date
2021-09-01
Submitted Date
Collections
Files
Loading...
Main article
Adobe PDF, 421.85 KB
Other Titles
Abstract
People prefer the central item in an array of items. This could be due to applying a decision heuristic or greater visual attention to the central item. We manipulated task instructions as participants chose one from three consumer items. The instructions were to “think carefully” in one block and to “use gut feeling” in another. A centrality preference appeared only in the “gut” condition, which was also negatively correlated with self-reported reflective thinking disposition (Need-for-Cognition). Eye-movement patterns, however, were equivalent across both instruction conditions with more frequent and longer fixations on the middle items. The findings demonstrate an effect of instructions on the centrality preference for non-identical consumer items, and provide evidence for a heuristic cause of the centrality preference rather than the allocation of visual attention. The results also show that the centrality preference is more likely to be present when people choose quickly and intuitively.
Citation
Thoma, V., Rodway, P., & Tamlyn, G. (2021). Gut thinking and eye tracking: Evidence for a central preference heuristic. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 33(8), 919-930. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2021.1969942
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Journal
Journal of Cognitive Psychology
Research Unit
DOI
10.1080/20445911.2021.1969942
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
Language
Description
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Cognitive Psychology on 01/09/2021, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20445911.2021.1969942
Series/Report no.
ISSN
2044-5911
EISSN
2044-592X