A million answers to twenty questions: choosing by checklist
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 08:41authored byMichael Mandler, Paola Manzini, Marco Mariotti
Several decision models in marketing science and psychology assume that a consumer chooses by proceeding sequentially through a checklist of desirable properties. These models are contrasted to the utility maximization model of rationality in economics. We show on the contrary that the two approaches are nearly equivalent. Since the number of preference discriminations that an agent can make increases exponentially in the number of properties used, checklists provide a rapid procedural basis for utility maximization.