Why Shorter Lists Win: New Vanderbilt research on how we misread rankings

Turns out it’s better to be three out of 12 than six out of 24, even though they’re technically the same thing. In a recent paper co-authored with Uri Barnea of Bocconi University and Alice Moon of Georgetown University, Associate Professor of Marketing Jackie Silverman examines how people evaluate rankings when they know both the option’s position and the length of the list. The core finding codifies what many of us are guilty of: preferring options ranked within shorter lists over options with equivalent relative standings in longer lists.