John is evaluating four brands of 3-D televisions and has decided that picture quality is the most important attribute. All of the alternatives exceed his minimum cutoff for this attribute, so he next compares them on price. One option did not meet his acceptable price cutoff because the price was too high and was eliminated from further review. Next, he looked at the number of HDMI inputs and eliminated another alternative because it did have the minimum number of inputs. He continued in this manner until only one alternative was left and that's the one he decided to purchase. Which decision rule was John using?
A) conjunctive
B) compensatory
C) hierarchical
D) elimination-by-aspects

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

John used the elimination-by-aspects decision rule where he evaluated each alternative based on one attribute at a time and eliminated those that did not meet his minimum criterion for that attribute. This is a non-compensatory rule where each attribute is considered separately and cannot be compensated by another attribute. The conjunctive rule would require all attributes to meet minimum cutoffs, while the compensatory rule would allow a tradeoff between attributes. The hierarchical rule involves evaluating attributes in a specific order, which is not evident in the given scenario.

John Is Evaluating Four Brands of 3-D Televisions and Has