Gut thinking and eye tracking: Evidence for a central preference heuristic
Affiliation
University of East London; University of ChesterPublication Date
2021-09-01
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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/10.1080/20445911.2021.1969942Publisher
Taylor and FrancisJournal
Journal of Cognitive PsychologyAdditional Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20445911.2021.1969942?journalCode=pecp21Type
ArticleDescription
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/10.1080/20445911.2021.1969942ISSN
2044-5911EISSN
2044-592Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/20445911.2021.1969942
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/