Footnotes to fishbein: the contrast model of stimulus evaluation

TL;DRAbstract

Fishbein’s (1967b) multi-attribute model of attitudes is a popular tool for the assessment of consumer perceptions and preferences in marketing research. This paper focuses on Fishbein’s learning theory of attitudes, the multi-attribute model that he has offered as a formalization of his theory and on the relationship between both. Problems that arise at the intersection of theory and model are discussed. Fishbein’s view on attribute ((salience)) is identified as a major determinant of these problems. Furthermore, the failure to recognize dependency of attribute salience on the context in which choice alternatives are perceived is argued to be a major limitation of the Fishbein paradigm. The original theory is extended and the extended theory is formalized with an adaptation of Tversky’s (1977) contrast model of similarity. The strengths and weaknesses of the resulting framework for the marketing-research practice are briefly discussed.

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