Boundary Conditions on Unconscious Thought in Complex Decision Making

Should individuals delegate thinking about complex choice problems to the unconscious? We tested two boundary conditions on this suggestion. First, we found that in a decision environment similar to those studied previously, self-paced conscious thought and unconscious thought had similar advantages over conscious thought constrained to a long fixed time interval in terms of identifying the option with the highest number of positive outcomes. Second, we found that self-paced conscious thought performed better than unconscious thought in a second decision environment where performance depended to a greater extent on magnitudes of the attributes. Thus, we argue that it is critical to take into account the interaction of forms of processing with task demands (choice environments) when considering how to approach complex choice problems.

[1]  Joseph B. Hellige,et al.  Lateralized interference in finger tapping: Comparisons of rate and variability measures under speed and consistency tapping instructions , 1986, Brain and Cognition.

[2]  Christopher K. Hsee,et al.  Music, Pandas, and Muggers: On the Affective Psychology of Value , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[3]  David R Shanks,et al.  Complex Choices Better Made Unconsciously? , 2006, Science.

[4]  Jeroen van de Ven,et al.  Aspiration Level, Probability of Success and Failure, and Expected Utility , 2008 .

[5]  John W. Payne,et al.  Measuring Constructed Preferences: Towards a Building Code , 1999 .

[6]  Rick B. van Baaren,et al.  On Making the Right Choice: The Deliberation-Without-Attention Effect , 2006, Science.

[7]  V. Reyna,et al.  Fuzzy-trace theory: An interim synthesis , 1995 .

[8]  J. Payne It is Whether You Win or Lose: The Importance of the Overall Probabilities of Winning or Losing in Risky Choice , 2005 .

[9]  D. Medin,et al.  Decision making from a cognitive perspective , 1995 .

[10]  Eric J. Johnson,et al.  The adaptive decision maker , 1993 .

[11]  L Hasher,et al.  Automatic processing of fundamental information: the case of frequency of occurrence. , 1984, The American psychologist.

[12]  A. Dijksterhuis,et al.  On the benefits of thinking unconsciously: Unconscious thought can increase post-choice satisfaction , 2006 .

[13]  Nigel Harvey,et al.  Blackwell Handbook of Judgment and Decision Making , 2004 .

[14]  A. Dijksterhuis,et al.  A Theory of Unconscious Thought , 2006, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[15]  Richard Gonzalez,et al.  Decision under Risk , 2004 .

[16]  A. Dijksterhuis Think different: the merits of unconscious thought in preference development and decision making. , 2004, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[17]  Lola L. Lopes Algebra and Process in the Modeling of Risky Choice , 1995 .