Procedural Analysis of Choice Rules with Applications to Bounded Rationality

724 In 1981, an internal study by American Airlines found that travel agents booked the first flight that appeared on their computer screen 53 percent of the time, and a flight that appeared somewhere on the first screen almost 92 percent of the time. This provided an incentive for American to manipulate the order in which flights were listed on American’s “Sabre” computer reservation system, which dominated the market for electronic flight booking. Allegations by smaller airlines that American—and United Airlines which owned the second largest computer reservation system “Apollo”—engaged in such manipulations led the US federal government to regulate screen display in computer reservation systems. This example, in which the order of the alternatives affects decision making, is by no means unique. In elections, for example, being listed first on the ballot increases the likelihood of winning office, mainly at the expense of candidates listed in the middle of the ballot. In competitions, judges tend to award higher