The Love of Large Numbers Revisited: A Coherence Model of the Popularity Bias

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dc.contributor.authorHeck, Daniel W.
dc.contributor.authorSeiling, Lukas
dc.contributor.authorBröder, Arndt
dc.date.accessioned2025-07-03T11:49:18Z
dc.date.available2025-07-03T11:49:18Z
dc.date.issued2020
dc.description.abstractPreferences are often based on social information such as experiences and recommendations of other people. The reliance on social information is especially relevant in the case of online shopping, where buying decisions for products may often be based on online reviews by other customers. Recently, Powell, Yu, DeWolf, and Holyoak (2017, Psychological Science, 28, 1432-1442) showed that, when deciding between two products, people do not consider the number of product reviews in a statistically appropriate way as predicted by a Bayesian model but rather exhibit a bias for popular products (i.e., products with many reviews). In the present work, we propose a coherence model of the cognitive mechanism underlying this empirical phenomenon. The new model assumes that people strive for a coherent representation of the available information (i.e., the average review score and the number of reviews). To test this theoretical account, we reanalyzed the data of Powell and colleagues and ran an online study with 244 participants using a wider range of stimulus material than in the original study. Besides replicating the popularity bias, the study provided clear evidence for the predicted coherence effect, that is, decisions became more confident and faster when the available information about popularity and quality was congruent.
dc.identifier.citationHeck, D. W., Seiling, L., & Bröder, A. (2020). The Love of Large Numbers Revisited: A Coherence Model of the Popularity Bias. Cognition, 195, 104069. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104069
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104069
dc.identifier.issn0010-0277
dc.identifier.issn1873-7838
dc.identifier.urihttps://www.weizenbaum-library.de/handle/id/923
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsopen access
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectJudgment
dc.subjectdecision making
dc.subjectinformation integration
dc.subjectheuristics
dc.subjectparallel constraint
dc.subjectsatisfaction
dc.titleThe Love of Large Numbers Revisited: A Coherence Model of the Popularity Bias
dc.typeArticle
dc.type.statuspublishedVersion
dcmi.typeText
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.urlhttps://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0010027719302422
local.researchgroupDynamiken digitaler Nachrichtenvermittlung
local.researchtopicDigitale Märkte und Öffentlichkeiten auf Plattformen
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