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Abstract

The decoy effect is a cognitive bias, commonly used as a marketing strategy, to influence a buyer’s decision. Its purpose is to make the highest priced option appear more attractive by having an asymmetrical dominance over the other two choices. Here we examine how the decoy effect alters people’s likelihood of incorporating plant based foods into their diet with and without its presence. By randomly assigning participants into two conditions, we then measured their intended eating behaviour through a survey. We found that approximately three-quarters of our participants chose the meat-based meal when they were presented with the choice of a plant-based or meat-based meal. With the decoy present, we found a decrease in the amount of participants who selected the meat-option. However, the decoy itself was picked for both breakfast and dinner. Through a chi-square significance test, we found that the decoy effect was only statistically significant for breakfast and lunch at p