WHEN MATCHING UP FEATURES MESSES UP DECISIONS - THE ROLE OF FEATURE MATCHING IN SUCCESSIVE CHOICES

Two studies examined feature matching in successive judgments. College students in both studies read about 2 apartments with shared positive and unique negative features, and 1 less globally positive apartment with all unique features. In the feature-cancellation condition, parti cipants first saw the shared-features apartments together and then saw the all-unique apartment. In the no-cancellation condition, participa nts first saw 1 shared-features apartment and the all-unique apartment together and then saw the other shared-features apartment. Shared-fea tures apartments were rated higher when they were not seen together. T he all-unique apartment was rated higher when it was seen last, when t he first 2 apartments' shared features canceled out. Study 2 replicate d Study 1 and also demonstrated that 2 additional variables failed to moderate the effect. Memory measures suggest that shared features are paired up as an organizational strategy.