How Consumers Use Rank Position and List Length in Product Evaluations

Abstract

How do people use ranking information when evaluating products? In nine preregistered experiments, we find a persistent preference for products ranked within shorter (vs. longer) lists. For instance, participants preferred a product ranked 2nd of 8 over a product ranked 4th of 16, despite both products having the same relative position within their respective lists (25th percentile). We propose that when consumers evaluate rankings, they primarily consider the position of a product relative to the best products on the list. Because they rely more on the product’s distance from the top-ranked alternative (i.e., #1), they tend to prefer products ranked in shorter lists, even when their relative percentile ranking is the same as—or even worse than—the longer list alternatives. Accordingly, we find that the effect attenuates when we instead draw attention to: (a) the distance from the bottom-ranked option by highlighting the number of products ranked below the focal product, or (b) the products’ relative position on the list. These findings are theoretically important for advancing the understanding of how people process ranking information and practically important to marketers who can control how ranked lists are communicated.

Keywords: product ranking, rank position, product evaluation, heuristics, open science