Power and the illusion of control: Do individual’s correctly anticipate how much influence they have within a household choice?

Abstract

Choices of groups remain one of the lesser studied behaviours in the choice literature. This continues to be an oversight as many choices are made at a household or even social level. In particular, studies that seek to further our understanding of the role of individual influence in group choices remain uncommon. This paper presents the first steps of research into an even less researched area of group choice; the level of influence that individuals think they have over a group choice. In the context of motor vehicle choice among household dyads, we find that individuals mostly perceive influence to be equally shared across vehicle attributes, with the primary user of the motor vehicle, on average, perceiving themselves to be more influential than their partner. While the primary user may perceive them self to be more influential this is mismatched with what is uncovered by modelling group powers. Influence of the primary agent is limited to the type of fuel the vehicle uses. We find that perceptions of influence are predominantly a function of attitudes about vehicle emissions and the age of the individual. Overall we provide new evidence into the ability of people to assess their own influence in a negotiation process, the influence of another and the sources of discrepancy that may exist, thus adding richer insights to the contextual understanding of group decisions.