Using eye tracking to account for attribute non-attendance in choice experiments

Citation

Van Loo E, Nayga R, Campbell D, Seo H & Verbeke W (2018) Using eye tracking to account for attribute non-attendance in choice experiments. European Review of Agricultural Economics, 45 (3), pp. 333-365. https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/jbx035

Abstract
This study uses eye-tracking measures to account for attribute non-attendance (ANA) in choice experiments. Using the case of sustainability labelling on coffee, we demonstrate various approaches to account for ANA based on number of fixation count cut-offs, definitions for detecting ignored attributes, and methods for modelling ANA. Some of the sustainability attributes identified through eye-tracking measures as being ‘visually ignored’ were truly ignored while in none of the tested approaches price was truly ignored. The adequacy of eye-tracking as a visual ANA measure might thus depend on the attribute. Further, there are inconsistencies in identifying non-attenders using visual ANA and the coefficient of variation. Based on our results, we cannot conclude that eye-tracking always adequately identifies ANA. However, we identified several major challenges that can assist in further optimizing the use of eye-tracking in the context of ANA.

Keywords
Decision-making; Eye-tracking; Sustainability labelling; Visual attention; Visual attribute non-attendance

Journal
European Review of Agricultural Economics: Volume 45, Issue 3

• ERAE2017.pdf