Contrast Effects in Sequential Decisions: Evidence from Speed Dating
利用快速约会数据，检验了对比效应（即决策者感知信息时受先前信息影响而产生偏差），发现先前约会对象的吸引力会降低后续同意约会的概率，且该效应主要由男性驱动。
We provide an empirical test of contrast effects—a bias where a decision maker perceives information in contrast to what preceded it—in the quasi-experimental context of speed dating decisions. We document that prior partner attractiveness reduces the subsequent likelihood of an affirmative dating decision. This relationship is confined to recent interactions, consistent with a perceptual error, but not learning or the presence of a quota in affirmative responses. The contrast effect is driven almost entirely by male evaluators. Additional evidence documents the effect's linearity with respect to prior partner attractiveness, its amplification for partners of moderate attractiveness, and its partial attenuation with accumulated experience. © 2014 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology