2K Sports has chosen Kobe Bryant to grace the cover of their upcoming NBA 2K10 release. What's interesting about this is that they have provided four alternative images and are allowing you to vote for which image you would prefer to see grace the cover. What's even more interesting is that while three of the four images feature Kobe in a Lakers uniform, images i'll refer to as LA1, LA2 and LA3, the fourth image portrays him in the same pose as LA3 but in New York Knicks uniform. I'll refer to this image as NY3.

Not surprisingly the NY3 image is garnering a good chunk of the vote as of today and sits in second place at 29%. I would assume this is due to the oddity of seeing a player in a competing uniform. The question though is, which LA image is in the lead out of the three? At first glance there is not too much of a difference between the three images. All show Kobe in one some sort of in game pose. But if you consult Predictably Irrational's first chapter The Truth about Relativity you may be able to gain some insight into why LA3 is currently dominating the other two LA options (LA1 and LA2) 36% to 19% and 16% respectively.

The NY3 image is acting as a decoy in this scenario and to voters who aren't swayed to vote directly for it by it's oddness of inclusion its presence appears to be causing LA3 to appear all the more attractive relative to LA1 and LA2. Based on the ideas presented in Predictably Irrational I would assume that whichever LA image was used to represent the NY image would be the LA image that was leading the vote. If so, is NBA 2K10 really giving you the choice to vote or did they want LA3 all along and come up with a creative way of getting the outcome they desired all the while giving us the illusion of choice? They are taking a risk of course that NY3 wins the vote purely on its cache but that seems to be a risk they are willing to take.