Many cognitive processes rely on representations of magnitude, yet these representations are often unstable and malleable (Helson, 1964; Huttenlocher, Hedges, & Vevea, 2000; Parducci, 1965). It is likely that factors that affect these representations in turn affect the psychological processes that rely upon them. Nine experiments investigated the possibility that verbally-expressible magnitude comparisons (e.g., “A is more expensive than B,” or “C is more fattening than D”) alter mental representations of magnitude and, consequently, affect other psychological processes that rely upon them. Experiments 1 through 5 demonstrated systematic comparison-induced distortions in tasks in which participants compared and estimated those magnitudes. The remaining experiments investigated the role of comparison-induced distortions in other well-known psychological phenomena including contrast effects in estimates of body size (Experiment 6), decoy effects such as the Asymmetric Dominance Effect studied in the judgment and decision making literature (Experiment 7), and sequence effects (Experiments 8 and 9). The results of these experiments suggest that comparison-induced distortions have the potential to explain a large variety of psychological phenomena.
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