Content Effects on Decision Making

Authors: Rettinger D.A.¹; Hastie R.²

Source: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Volume 85, Number 2, July 2001 , pp. 336-359(24)

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Abstract:

How does the domain or subject matter of a decision problem affect the outcome of the decision? Although decision-making research typically dismisses content as merely a cover story, the present research shows that it plays a fundamental role in the decision process by influencing the information processing that underlies it. An experiment is reported in which the same basic decision problem was presented in several content domains (legal traffic tickets, academic course grades, stock investments, and casino gambling). The changes in content led to changes in both strategies and mental representations, which in turn led to changes in decision outcomes, even though measures of the subjective utilities of the options remained unchanged. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Psychology Department, Middlebury College 2: Psychology Department, University of Colorado

Publication date: 2001-07-01