Metric and scale design as choice architecture tools
Camilleri and Larrick ran two online experiments on how fuel economy is presented, varying the metric (gas consumption or the cost of gas) and the scale (100, 15,000 or 100,000 miles) to see whether framing could shift preferences towards fuel-efficient vehicles. Preference was highest when fuel economy was expressed as the cost of gas over 100,000 miles, whether or not the buyer's higher purchase price was offset by gas savings. The authors discuss compatibility, anchoring and familiarity as possible causes and recommend presenting fuel-efficiency information as costs over an expanded, lifetime scale.
Camilleri and Larrick ran two online experiments on how fuel economy is presented, varying the metric (gas consumption or the cost of gas) and the scale (100, 15,000 or 100,000 miles) to see whether framing could shift preferences towards fuel-efficient vehicles. Preference was highest when fuel economy was expressed as the cost of gas over 100,000 miles, whether or not the buyer's higher purchase price was offset by gas savings. The authors discuss compatibility, anchoring and familiarity as possible causes and recommend presenting fuel-efficiency information as costs over an expanded, lifetime scale.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-27 via OpenAlex.
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Camilleri, A. R., & Larrick, R. P. (2014). Metric and scale design as choice architecture tools. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 33(1), 108-125. doi:10.1509/jppm.12.151 https://doi.org/10.1509/jppm.12.151