Ryan Mandy, Krucien Nicolas, Hermens Frouke
Health Economics Research Unit, Institute of Applied Health Sciences,, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
Health Econ. 2018 Apr;27(4):709-721. doi: 10.1002/hec.3626. Epub 2017 Dec 27.
Although choice experiments (CEs) are widely applied in economics to study choice behaviour, understanding of how individuals process attribute information remains limited. We show how eye-tracking methods can provide insight into how decisions are made. Participants completed a CE, while their eye movements were recorded. Results show that although the information presented guided participants' decisions, there were also several processing biases at work. Evidence was found of (a) top-to-bottom, (b) left-to-right, and (c) first-to-last order biases. Experimental factors-whether attributes are defined as "best" or "worst," choice task complexity, and attribute ordering-also influence information processing. How individuals visually process attribute information was shown to be related to their choices. Implications for the design and analysis of CEs and future research are discussed.
尽管选择实验（CEs）在经济学中被广泛应用于研究选择行为，但对于个体如何处理属性信息的理解仍然有限。我们展示了眼动追踪方法如何能够洞察决策是如何做出的。参与者完成了一项选择实验，同时记录了他们的眼动。结果表明，尽管呈现的信息引导了参与者的决策，但也存在一些起作用的处理偏差。发现了以下证据：（a）自上而下、（b）从左到右以及（c）从第一到最后的顺序偏差。实验因素——属性是被定义为“最佳”还是“最差”、选择任务的复杂性以及属性排序——也会影响信息处理。研究表明个体如何视觉处理属性信息与他们的选择有关。讨论了对选择实验的设计和分析以及未来研究的启示。
