Are Efficient Designs Used in Discrete Choice Experiments Too Difficult for Some Respondents? A Case Study Eliciting Preferences for End-of-Life Care

Background

Although efficient designs have sample size advantages for discrete choice experiments (DCEs), it has been hypothesised that they may result in biased estimates owing to some respondents using simplistic heuristics.
Objectives

The main objective was to provide a case study documenting that many respondents choose on the basis of a single attribute when exposed to highly efficient DCE designs but switch to a conventional multi-attribute decision rule when the design efficiency was lowered (resulting in less need to trade across all attributes). Additional objectives included comparisons of the sizes of the estimated coefficients and characterisation of heterogeneity, thus providing evidence of the magnitude of bias likely present in highly efficient designs.