Conscious and unconscious thought preceding complex decisions: The influence of taking notes and intelligence

Conscious and unconscious thought preceding complex decisions: The influence of taking notes and intelligence. Aline Sevenants (aline.sevenants@ppw.kuleuven.be) Dieter Daniels (dieter.daniels@student.kuleuven.be) Leen Janssens (leen.janssens@ppw.kuleuven.be) Walter Schaeken (walter.schaeken@ppw.kuleuven.be) Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102 B-3000 Leuven, Belgium Abstract believed to have an equal performance, no matter the difficulty level of the choice. Consciousness, in contrast, is especially good at making easy choices, even better than unconsciousness. But as decisions get more complex, consciousness has more problems with decision making, thereby performing worse than unconsciousness (Dijksterhuis et al., 2006) The deliberation-without- attention hypothesis is drawn from the Unconscious Thought Theory ( UTT ; Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006), which explains the different characteristics of conscious and unconscious thought. UTT and the deliberation-without-attention effect seemed to explain findings in earlier research (e.g., Wilson & Schooler, 1991; Wilson et al., 1993; Halberstadt & Levine, 1999). Research by other authors, however, led to conclusions that cannot be explained by UTT . In Experiment 1 of Thorsteinson and Withrow (2009), participants had to recall as many attributes as possible, before or after judging the different choice options. Only when judgement preceded recall, results provided evidence for the deliberation-without-attention hypothesis. The authors argued, however, that by recalling attributes, the participants in the unconscious-thought condition engaged in a form of conscious thought. It was also argued that the weighting principle of UTT is based on a weighted-additive model ( WADD ), but that a TALLY -model is used in research by Dijksterhuis (2004) and Dijksterhuis et al. (2006) to measure the quality of the choice (Newell et al., 2009). A weighted-additive model calculates the quality of a choice by the weight of every attribute, for example, if a cup holder is less important in a car than a good mileage, the cup holder should not get as much weight in the calculation of the quality of the cars. A TALLY -model calculates the options by simply adding the number of positive attributes. A cup holder thus has as much influence on the car’s score as a good mileage. In order to clarify the contradicting findings in the literature, a meta-analysis was conducted by Acker (2008), which showed a large heterogeneity between different studies. It revealed a small but unconvincing advantage in favour of unconscious thought. Since different studies led to other conclusions, more research is needed to clarify under which conditions unconscious thought can be useful. Previous research showed that unconscious thought does not necessarily perform better under certain circumstances. One specific condition under which unconscious thought seems to lose its advantages is when participants are not obligated to rely on their memory when For many years, research has been done to find the best way to make decisions. Dijksterhuis and Nordgren (2006) formulated the Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT), stating that when making complex decisions it is better not to think consciously, but to direct your attention elsewhere, letting the unconscious make the decision. However, a wealth of research has found evidence against the predictions of UTT. Thorsteinson and Withrow (2009) found that participants, who were allowed to take notes during the information intake stage, made better decisions thinking consciously. The current study is a replication of Thorsteinson and Withrow (2009), being a four conditions design (immediate decision, unconscious thought, conscious thought or conscious thought with notes) with the addition of intelligence as a variable. The conclusion of Thorsteinson and Withrow (2009) is supported: The best complex decisions are made when participants take notes and use them while thinking consciously. Moreover, it is shown that intelligence is positively correlated with better decisions. Introduction When you buy a new house or car, you face a complex decision with many choice options that have different advantages and disadvantages. There are several ways to make this decision. You could try to list up all the different attributes of all the choice options, and think deeply about which option best suits your needs. Another strategy would be to make sure you are well informed about the different options, but not to decide immediately. After a good night of sleep, a gut feeling will arise, a preference for one of the options, even though you don’t know where it came from. These are two completely different ways of making a complex decision, and throughout the years, there has been a lot of discussion about the intriguing question which of these strategies results in the best decisions. For a long time, decision-making has been seen as a matter of rationality, objectivity and reflection. According to this view, a good decision can be made by breaking down the decision into small amounts of information, which have to be evaluated separately (e.g., Edwards, 1961; Dawes & Corrigan, 1974). Later, this view has been challenged. Dijksterhuis, Bos, Nordgren, and van Baaren (2006) formulated the deliberation-without-attention hypothesis, stating there is a trade-off between the complexity of a decision and the usefulness of conscious thought when making the decision. To make an easy decision, it is better to think consciously, whereas unconscious thought should be used to solve more complex, broader decision problems. Unconsciousness is