Justification pressure in risky decision making: search for risk defusing operators

Under justification pressure, the decision maker knows in advance that the decision has to be justified to somebody afterwards. The effect of justification pressure on the search for risk defusing operators (RDOs) and the role of RDOs in the justification texts were investigated. An RDO is an action intended by the decision maker to be performed in addition to an otherwise attractive alternative to decrease the risk. As predicted, in Experiment 1 participants (60 non-students) under justification pressure searched more RDOs. Additionally, in Experiment 2 (80 non-students) RDO search success was varied. Under justification pressure, persistence of RDO search was higher when no RDO could be detected. In the justification texts, the existence or non-existence of RDOs played a prominent role. Searching for RDOs supports people in their goal to make a good decision and in their attempt to convince the addressee of their justification that the decision was good.