Contextual influences on liking and preference

The paper addresses the topic of how much an individual likes a stimulus and also how much that individual prefers it to other stimuli. Research is reviewed showing that the context in which the stimulus is presented affects both liking and preference judgments. Having subjects think of the context stimuli and the test stimuli as being in different categories reduces the impact of the context stimuli on the ratings of the test stimuli and might be used to avoid such context effects in determining liking of and preferences for stimuli.