Context effect
A context effect is an aspect of cognitive psychology that describes the influence of environmental factors on one's perception of a stimulus.
[5][6] When context effects occur, individuals are using environmental cues perceived while examining the stimuli in order to help analyze it.
[9][failed verification] For example, one may recognize a fully composed object faster than its individual parts (object-superiority effect).
Context can prime our attitudes and beliefs about certain topics based on current environmental factors and our previous experiences with them.
[12] Context effects can be nullified if we are made consciously aware of the outside stimulus or past history that may influence our decision.
[15] Firms looking to increase product resale can use these context effects to construct more profitable marketing strategies.
[15] Context Effect on Consumer Behavior In a study conducted on 55 undergraduate marketing students at a university in Korea, researchers set up a mixed design to test if a visual framing promoting a greater use of alternative-based processing would reduce the perceived attractiveness of compromise options.
In order to perpetuate attribute and alternative based processing in their participants, researchers used different visual tactics to present each product.
Conversely, in the alternative treatment group, vertical lines were drawn in between individual product options to visually separate them from one another.
Further, researchers simultaneously assessed how the attractiveness and compromise effect impacts the probability of the consumer to choose a target brand by listing two attributes for each of the three products in the choice set.
The findings of this study proved their hypothesis, as the frequency of how often the compromise option was chosen depends heavily on the difference in visual framing of the attribute and alternative based processing treatments.
The study found that when the alternative treatment was not promoted, the compromise effect took precedence over the participants’ decision making.
Furthermore, the study showed that there was no significant difference between the attribute and control treatments, as the probability of choosing an asymmetrically dominant option was equally high across all three framing conditions.
