Experimental Verification and Further Reflection on the Peak-End Rule

Abstract

People make choices all the time, and sometimes the results of choices are unexpected, and the existence of the peak-end rule can explain the counterintuition in our decision evaluation. In fact, changes in "peak" and "end" experiences affect the choices people make all the time and greatly affect the evaluation of decisions. This article summarizes the characteristics of the Peak-End Rule and provides a large number of real-life examples to explain it. Based on this, three experiments were designed to verify the correctness of the Peak-End Rule from different perspectives. Among these experiments, Experiment 2 was the most important, and all participants participated in two stages of the experiment. In the first stage, they ran 100 meters with full effort, and in the second stage, they slowed down and ran 50 meters after running 100 meters with full effort. It was recorded that all participants chose to participate in the second stage of exercise, and more people chose to complete the second stage. This conclusion is contrary to common sense because the second stage covered an additional distance of 50 meters. But this result precisely confirms the conclusion of the Peak-End Theorem, because the end of the second stage run is easier, and more participants choose to run in the second stage. Meanwhile, through in-depth analysis of the data from Experiment 3, the author believes that the impact of the "endpoint" on decision-making is greater than that of the "peak".