Chapter 10, Problem 10.51ACI

Creating menus to influence others. Refer to the Journal of Consumer Research (March 2003) study on influencing the choices of others by offering undesirable alternatives, Exercise 7.80(p. 402). In another experiment conducted by the researcher, 96 subjects were asked to imagine that they had just moved to an apartment with two others and that they were shopping for a new appliance (e.g.. television, microwave oven). Each subject was asked to create a menu of three brand choices for their roommates; then subjects were randomly assigned (in equal numbers) to one of three different “goal'’ conditions—(1) create the menu in order to influence roommates to buy a preselected brand, (2) create the menu in order to influence roommates to buy a brand of your choice, and (3) create the menu with no intent to influence roommates The researcher theorized that the menus created to influence others would likely include undesirable alternative brands. Consequently the number of menus in each goal condition that was consistent with the theory was determined. The data are summarized in the table below. Analyze the data for the purpose of determining whether the proportion of subjects who selected menus consistent with the theory depends on goal condition. Use α = .01.

Goal Condition	Number Consistent with Theory	Number Not Consistent with Theory	Totals
Influence/preselected brand	15	17	32
Influence/own brand	14	18	32
No influence	3	29	32
Source: Based on R W Hamilton, “Why Do People Suggest What They Do Not Want? Using Context Effects to Influence Others’ Choices,” Journal of Consumer Research, Vol 29. No 4, March 2003 (Table 2).