ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cognitive Science
The Attraction Effect in Perceptual Decision-Making: A Case of Dominance Asymmetry
Provisionally accepted
- Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India
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The attraction effect (AE), or asymmetric dominance effect, occurs when the presence of a clearly inferior decoy increases the choice of a target over a competitor. While robust in value-based domains, findings with perceptual stimuli have been inconsistent, with some studies even reporting reversals in triangular arrangements of stimuli. Across four experiments and a reanalysis of prior data, we demonstrate that these inconsistencies are attributable to the presence or absence of genuine item-wise dominance asymmetry. Experiment 1 established that novel star-shaped stimuli reliably produced strong target–decoy (TD) dominance over competitor–decoy (CD) dominance, whereas traditional rectangles showed weaker but still positive asymmetry. Experiment 2 provided the first robust demonstration of a positive AE with perceptual stimuli in a triangular layout using stars, while Experiment 3 showed that rectangle stimuli, when presented in a triangular layout, produced an aggregate null rather than a negative effect. Similarly, the reanalysis of data from a previous triplet experiment involving bars stimuli pointed towards a null effect. Experiment 4 again linked inconsistent findings from linear versus triangular alignment of triplet rectangles to the presence of asymmetric dominance, while also demonstrating an interaction between the differential ease of comparison in pairs and presentation format. Together, these results demonstrate that AE is a robust phenomenon that emerges whenever decoys create strong item-level dominance asymmetry. Apparent inconsistencies with perceptual stimuli reflect stimulus-specific dominance structures. This work clarifies the boundary conditions of the AE, reinforces its domain generality, and provides methodological guidance for future research on context effects in perceptual decision-making.
Keywords: Asymmetric Dominance, Attraction Effect, Decoy, perceptual, Preference reversals
Received: 08 Jul 2025; Accepted: 30 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rath, Srinivasan and Srivastava. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tapas Ranjan Rath
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