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Visual Attention and Choice: A Behavioral Economics Perspective on Food Decisions

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  • Grebitus Carola

    (Morrison School of Agribusiness, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, 7231 E. Sonoran Arroyo Mall, San Tan 235F Mesa, AZ 85212, USA)

  • Roosen Jutta

    (Chair of Marketing and Consumer Research, Technische Universität München, Alte Akademie 16, 85350 Freising, Germany)

  • Seitz Carolin Claudia

    (Chair of Marketing and Consumer Research, Technische Universität München, Alte Akademie 16, 85350 Freising, Germany)

Abstract

Food decisions receive a lot of attention from multiple disciplines. In this context, choice experiments are often used to determine consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for food product attributes. The design of choice experiments and its influence on measurement of consumer choices has received great consideration. This study analyzes the influence of visual attention on the final choice by combining choice experiments with eye tracking. Furthermore, the role of attention on more or less complex choices is investigated by using two treatments with three-attribute and five-attribute designs. We find that visual attention affects decision making of the average individual but there is heterogeneity in behavior present as to how much attention influences choice. Furthermore, results show that visual attention predicts choice more in the choice experiment with the three-attribute design than in the choice experiment with the five-attribute design.

Suggested Citation

  • Grebitus Carola & Roosen Jutta & Seitz Carolin Claudia, 2015. "Visual Attention and Choice: A Behavioral Economics Perspective on Food Decisions," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 73-81, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bjafio:v:13:y:2015:i:1:p:73-81:n:3
    DOI: 10.1515/jafio-2015-0017
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    Cited by:

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    2. Devdeepta Bose & Henning Cordes & Sven Nolte & Judith Christiane Schneider & Colin Farrell Camerer, 2022. "Decision Weights for Experimental Asset Prices Based on Visual Salience," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(11), pages 5094-5126.
    3. Chavez, Daniel E. & Palma, Marco A. & Nayga Jr., Rodolfo M., 2017. "When does real become consequential in non-hypothetical choice experiments?," 2018 Annual Meeting, February 2-6, 2018, Jacksonville, Florida 266327, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    4. Balcombe, Kelvin & Fraser, Iain & Williams, Louis & McSorley, Eugene, 2017. "Examining the relationship between visual attention and stated preferences: A discrete choice experiment using eye-tracking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 238-257.
    5. Taro Ohdoko & Satoru Komatsu, 2023. "Integrating a Pareto-Distributed Scale into the Mixed Logit Model: A Mathematical Concept," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-22, November.
    6. Iryna Printezis & Carola Grebitus & Stefan Hirsch, 2019. "The price is right!? A meta-regression analysis on willingness to pay for local food," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-23, May.
    7. Bansal, Prateek & Kim, Eui-Jin & Ozdemir, Semra, 2024. "Discrete choice experiments with eye-tracking: How far we have come and ways forward," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    8. Carola Grebitus & Ellen J. Van Loo, 2022. "Relationship between cognitive and affective processes, and willingness to pay for pesticide‐free and GMO‐free labeling," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(3), pages 407-421, May.
    9. Mesfin G. Genie & Mandy Ryan & Nicolas Krucien, 2023. "Keeping an eye on cost: What can eye tracking tell us about attention to cost information in discrete choice experiments?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 1101-1119, May.
    10. Grebitus, Carola & Davis, George C., 2017. "Change is good!? Analyzing the relationship between attention and nutrition facts panel modifications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 119-130.
    11. Carola Grebitus & Anne O. Peschel & Renée Shaw Hughner, 2018. "Voluntary food labeling: The additive effect of “free from” labels and region of origin," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(4), pages 714-727, October.
    12. Logar, Ivana & Brouwer, Roy & Campbell, Danny, 2020. "Does attribute order influence attribute-information processing in discrete choice experiments?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    13. Aaron Staples & Bridget K. Behe & Patricia Huddleston & Trey Malone, 2022. "What you see is what you get, and what you don't goes unsold: Choice overload and purchasing heuristics in a horticulture lab experiment," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 620-635, July.

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