The Attribute-Dynamic Attitude Model (Adam)

The traditional compensatory multi-attribute model persists in being inconsistent with empirical findings. It is suggested here that the model is based on a number of significant conceptual simplifications. Although the individual choice behavior is partially characterized by randomness, the model attempts to reveal the underlying deterministic rationale of the choice behavior, abstracted from random fluctuations. If such a model is conceptually false then no stochastic refinement can validate it, although some statistical tests might be improved slightly. We need a different kind of deterministic choice rationale, a new paradigm, capable of explaining and predicting those changes, intransitivities and inconsistencies of the individual choice behavior for which we currently have only a stochastic explanation. Such a methodology can then be further refined via stochastic extension. The model presented here is designed to explain and predict changes in individual choice behavior under varying conditions of choice.