Consumers Perceive That Whole-Number Average Ratings Reflect Less Variable Distributions

• In Event: 4.6 Influences of Numerical and Scale Formats on Judgments

Short Abstract

Consumers perceive less dispersion in the distributions of whole-number average ratings (e.g., 4) compared to those of non-whole-number average ratings (e.g., 4.10)—even when this is statistically unlikely. This effect is a product of the representativeness heuristic and drives consumer choice because consumers frequently prefer products with less variability.

Authors

• Christopher Bechler, Stanford University, USA

• Jonathan Levav, Stanford University, USA

• Joshua I Morris, Stanford University, USA