The attraction effect in decision making refers to how preferences are influenced by an inferior option in the choice set. Recent studies challenged the robustness of attraction effect by manipulating the distance between decoy and target in perceptual decision-making tasks. However, previous manipulation of the distance was not comprehensive and systematic enough. Whether the influence of distance between decoy and target on attraction effect would occur in high-level decisions remains unclear. The present study conducted five experiments (two on perceptual decisions and three on preferential decisions) where the distance of the decoy to the target option was systematically manipulated. We found that the distance of the decoy to the target systematically changes the strength and the direction of the attraction effect and sometimes causes its opposite: repulsion effect. Specifically, such change of the context effect (from attraction to repulsion) follows a U-shape function (technically regarding the relative choice share of the target option [RST] as a function of the target–decoy distance), which is in the shape of convex in the perceptual decisions but concave in the domain of preferential decisions. Our findings show how the distance of decoy to target influences the robustness of attraction effect in preferential and perceptual decisions.

中文翻译：

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诱饵与目标距离对语境效应的影响：吸引还是排斥？

决策中的吸引力效应是指偏好如何受到选择集中的劣势选项的影响。最近的研究通过在感知决策任务中操纵诱饵和目标之间的距离来挑战吸引力效应的鲁棒性。然而，之前对距离的操纵不够全面和系统。诱饵与目标之间的距离对吸引效果的影响是否会发生在高层决策中尚不清楚。本研究进行了五个实验（两个关于感知决策，三个关于优先决策），其中系统地操纵了诱饵与目标选项的距离。我们发现诱饵与目标的距离系统地改变了吸引效应的强度和方向，有时会导致其相反：排斥效应。具体来说，上下文效应的这种变化（从吸引到排斥）遵循 U 形函数（技术上将目标选项的相对选择份额 [RST] 作为目标 - 诱饵距离的函数），在感知决策中的凸面形状，但优先决策领域中的凹面形状。我们的研究结果表明，诱饵与目标的距离如何影响偏好和感知决策中吸引力效应的稳健性。背景效应的这种变化（从吸引到排斥）遵循 U 形函数（技术上将目标选项 [RST] 的相对选择份额视为目标 - 诱饵距离的函数），其形状为在感知决策中是凸的，而在优先决策领域是凹的。我们的研究结果表明，诱饵与目标的距离如何影响偏好和感知决策中吸引力效应的稳健性。背景效应的这种变化（从吸引到排斥）遵循 U 形函数（技术上将目标选项 [RST] 的相对选择份额视为目标 - 诱饵距离的函数），其形状为在感知决策中是凸的，而在优先决策领域是凹的。我们的研究结果表明，诱饵与目标的距离如何影响偏好和感知决策中吸引力效应的稳健性。