Testing four explanations for the better/worse-than-average effect: Single- and multi-item entities as comparison targets and referents

0749-5978/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Inc. A doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2010.03.003 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Suls). In six experiments, we tested four explanations for the better/worse-than-average effect (B/WTA) bymanipulating the number of items comprising the target or referent of direct comparison. A single-item target tended to be rated more extremely than a single-item or a multi-item referent (Experiments 1–3). No B/ WTAwas obtained, however,when amulti-item targetwas comparedwith either a singleormulti-item referent (Experiments 4 and 5). A bias favoring a multi-item target was found only if cohesiveness among the items was increased through instructions (Experiment 6). The Unique-Attributes Hypothesis generally provided thebest explanation thefindings; the focalismexplanation alsodemonstrated someempirical viability. The results suggest that important preferential decision-making outcomes can be affected by both the number of items and whether items are strategically manipulated to serve as targets or referents of comparison. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.