Munz, Kurt P.and Priya Raghubir (2016), "Sorting As Screening," Poster presented at the Society for Consumer Psychology Conference St. Petersburg, FL.
Sorting by a product attribute can diminish the importance weight of that attribute. When choosing is difficult, consumers may treat sorting as screening. Once options are sorted, consumers may form a consideration set comprising the options at the top. Because these options are more homogeneous with respect to the sorted attribute, consumers pay less attention to the sorted attribute in favor of a second attribute. This attentional shift emerges in a subsequent conjoint analysis, with less weight placed on the sorted attribute and more weight on a second attribute.
