The Compromise Effect across Domains: Healthy Food, Healthcare, and Charity

The Compromise Effect across Domains: Healthy Food, Healthcare, and Charity

The compromise effect refers to a phenomenon where when an option becomes the middle option in a choice set, it will be more attractive. While most current studies have focused on the consumption field, there is little further analysis and comparison under different contexts. This paper extends the discussion to more scenarios: healthy food consumption, healthcare decisions, and charitable donations to explore and compare the conditions and manifestations of the compromise effect across three distinct domains. This paper uses two research methods: literature review and secondary data analysis. The collected materials cover transaction data on healthy food consumption, healthcare decision surveys, and charitable donation experiment results. It was found that the compromise effect was present in all three scenarios, but with different characteristics and manifestations. It is worth pointing out that the uncompromise effect has been observed in the charitable donation scenario because of the customized option. These findings challenge the past views of rational choice theories and demonstrate that the compromise effect presents differently based on the contexts.