Check out our new publication on context effects‘ practical relevance

03.02.2026 -

How much can you trust context effects in product choice to hold in practice? The confidence in the generalizability of context effects research to real-world scenarios largely depends on the realism of consumer research study settings. Our team member Felix sheds light on the development of experimental realism through more than 40 years of context effects research.

Context effects are choice phenomena that show that our consumer decisions are not as stable as we think. However, there has been criticism that academic research investigates these effects in artificial ways, yielding insights of low practical value.

Felix’s literature review, published in Management Review Quarterly, analyzed 460 individual context effect investigations and assessed their extent of realism, which can crucially influence study conclusions. Overall, there is a positive development over time, but there is still room for improvement. However, the level of generalizability varies strongly across context effects: Especially popular ones, such as the attraction and compromise effects, have been demonstrated repeatedly even in real-world settings.

The article also provides a framework for designing realistic studies with practical relevance. Practitioners can also use this framework as an evaluation tool when reading research on context effects.

You are warmly invited to read this open-access article to dive deeper into the world of context effects (research).