The veil of experience. Do consumers prefer what they know best?

There is growing interest from health policy makers in eliciting consumer p references for health care services. This is particularly the case when ass essing the likely impact of innovations. Some people may be wary of innovat ions because they prefer the service they have previously experienced. Cons umer preferences for an existing and a hypothetical new bowel cancer testin g programme were measured using a discrete choice experiment questionnaire. The results showed that consumers had a statistically significant preferen ce for the existing service (status quo) when all other factors remained co nstant. It suggested that consumers make decisions under a 'veil of experie nce'. Possible explanations for this result include the endowment effect, s tatus quo bias and loss aversion. Future evaluations of health service inno vation should be aware of this tendency to favour the status quo. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.