When and Why attribute sorting affects attribute weights in decision-making

Information about alternatives often appears in a multi-option multi-attribute table, with the alternatives hierarchically sorted on attribute levels. This research shows that the choice of the primary sorting attribute can affect peoples' evaluations. Three studies show that the attribute on which options are primarily sorted becomes more important in preference formation, but only if this attribute is hard to evaluate. This sorting effect disappears if attribute level evaluation is rendered easier. Eye-movement data further show that the time to evaluate a given attribute level, a proxy for evaluation effort, mediates the effect of choice of sorting attribute on attribute weight in option evaluation. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.