Predicted preference conjoint analysis

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 26;16(8):e0256010. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256010. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

In this paper we propose a new method of eliciting market research information. Instead of asking respondents for their personal choices and preferences, we ask respondents to predict the choices of other respondents to the survey. Such predictions tap respondents' knowledge of peers, whether based on direct social contacts or on more general cultural information. The effectiveness of this approach has already been demonstrated in the context of political polling. Here we extend it to market research, specifically, to conjoint analysis. An advantage of the new approach is that it can elicit reliable responses in situations where people are not comfortable with disclosing their true preferences, but may be willing to give information about people around them. A theoretical argument demonstrates that predictions should yield utility estimates that are more accurate. These theoretical results are confirmed in four online experiments.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Choice Behavior*
  • Disclosure
  • Humans
  • Marketing / statistics & numerical data*
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Peer Group*
  • Politics
  • Social Networking*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This research was supported by two projects: 1. A Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme, PIOF-GA-2013-622868 - BayInno to SR. https://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/ The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. 2. A research grant of the Institute of Economics Zagreb, tvojgrant@eiz - PredPref, 2018, to SR. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.