If you want something to be selected by people who don’t know and probably don’t care too much, get its name higher on the list of choices or put it on the left of the Powerpoint.
Research by Kim, Krosnick and Casasanto of Stanford and Chicago Universities written in Political Psychology (Oct 2005) provides evidence of the name order effect on election results: those who are listed higher on the ballot paper will attract more votes. When everything else is equal, of course. For left handed readers, get named to the left. On vertical lists, get closer to the top.
The Primacy effect and First Impressions bias are well-proven and - some say - unavoidable for humans. And it seems that simply reading a name or phrase first can tip our positive response!
Now, this doesn’t make up for a weak proposal. But when you have to list your preference with others, give your boy a better chance. Put it higher on the list. Make it to the left on the Powerpoint.