Vices and virtues of misguided replications : the case of asymmetric dominance
Itamar Simonson (Graduate School of Business, Stanford University)
The likelihood of replicating an effect such as asymmetric dominance (AD) largely depends on the other, usually more important choice drivers (e.g., attributes, values). Accordingly, it is not at all surprising that the AD effect is often not observed when other choice drivers have greater impact and/or when the AD configuration is unlikely to be perceived. However, where price is an attribute and in many other cases, the AD effect is often observed in properly designed studies and in reality. Frederick, Lee, and Baskin raise important questions, but they would have made a greater contribution had they (a) systematically studied the drivers of AD perceptions, (b) more accurately tried to replicate earlier AD effect demonstrations, and (c) systematically studied the repulsion effect. I also briefly comment on the Lynn and Yang studies, which, as far as one can tell, in most cases did not properly test the AD effect