How Multiple-Choice Options Influence Choice Blindness

The choice blindness phenomenon, or the inability to detect false feedback about personal preference selection from a pair of alternatives, has now been well established across different stimuli and conditions. The choice blindness method employs
binary decision tasks with preferences for faces (Johansson, Hall & Sikström, 2008; Johansson, Hall, Sikström, Tärning & Lind, 2006), taste (Hall, Johansson, Tärning, Sikström & Deutgen, 2010), political voting (Hall, Strandberg, Pärnamets, Lind, Tärning & Johansson, 2013), moral opinions (Hall, Johansson & Strandberg, 2012), and personal finance (McLaughlin & Somerville, 2013).
Accordingly, in one experiment, we developed and employed ternary choice method in order to understand the influence of multiple options (varying in similarity and attractiveness) on choice blindness and justification of preferences. Participants saw three female faces on the screen, and were required to select the one they
preferred. They were then asked to indicate how confident they are in their choice and to provide an explanation behind that choice. The research provides insight into the psychological mechanism
underlying the choice blindness phenomenon by using multi attribute decision-making scenarios (Huber, Payne & Puto, 1982; Ariely, 2008) and varying the similarity and attractiveness of the
choice options presented.