How Representations of Knowledge Shape Actions

Before choosing to act, people often try to acquire knowledge about the possible consequences of their actions and associated likelihoods. In some cases they can refer to convenient descriptions of actions and their consequences—such as a medicine’s accompanying information of possible side effects and their probabilities. People thereby make decisions from description. However, when deciding whether to back up their computer hard drive, cross a busy street, or go out on a date, people do not enjoy the convenience of stated outcomes and probabilities. They make such decisions in the twilight of their sampled—and often limited—experience. That is, they make decisions from experience. Recent research has consistently demonstrated that decisions from description and decisions from experience can lead to substantially different choices. This chapter offers a review of this description–experience gap and its potential causes and explanations.

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