Points of (dis)parity: expectation disconfirmation from common attributes in consumer choice

Whereas many theories of decision making predict that presenting or not presenting common features of choice alternatives should not affect choice, in this research we show that common features can be a powerful driver of choice behavior. We conjecture that consumers often hold expectations about the features the choice alternatives have in common, and demonstrate that presenting (vs. omitting) a common feature increases the choice probability of the alternative that would have been expected to perform worse on the common feature. This effect occurs because performance on the common feature is judged not at face value, but relative to an expectation about which product should perform best on that feature. The effect obtains despite the fact that performance on the common feature is clearly the same when alternatives are presented side by side. Finally, we demonstrate four boundary conditions of our effect.