A Dual Process Evaluability Framework for decision anomalies

Alternative explanations have been offered to explain consumers' inconsistent preferences in decision problems. We present a Dual Process Evaluability Framework (DPEF) which suggests that the characteristics of the decision problem, including response mode, presentation mode, and choice-set structure, are critical to predicting preference reversals related to decisions under risk and uncertainty, over time, and between product assortments, as well as presentation mode reversals involving joint versus separate evaluations, and response mode reversals involving a combination of choice tasks, monetary value tasks, and attractiveness ratings. Our framework, grounded in evaluability theory and dual process models, predicts how these decision problem characteristics directly affect the ease of evaluation of alternatives which subsequently affects the relative dominance of feeling versus calculation in these tasks. Application of DPEF to previously documented preference reversals, complemented by three studies which test new predictions of DPEF, reveals that DPEF provides a parsimonious explanation for a variety of decision anomalies.