Biases and Heuristics in Decision Making and Their Impact on Autonomy

Cognitive scientists have identified a wide range of biases and heuristics in human decision making over the past few decades. Only recently have bioethicists begun to think seriously about the implications of these findings for topics such as agency, autonomy, and consent. This article aims to provide an overview of biases and heuristics that have been identified and a framework in which to think comprehensively about the impact of them on the exercise of autonomous decision making. I analyze the impact that these biases and heuristics have on the following dimensions of autonomy: understanding, intentionality, absence of alienating or controlling influence, and match between formally autonomous preferences or decisions and actual choices or actions.     

The Use of Criteria in Decision Making Regarding the Placement of Hearing Impaired Children

This article investigates the relationship between the criteria used for placement by groups of placement team members and by groups of professionals in the area of education of hearing impaired children. Eight groups of subjects were asked to make decisions regarding the placement of hearing impaired children in simulated case studies and 26 Committees on the Handicapped were asked to place one simulated case in the committee setting. The placements were analyzed using multiple regression techniques. Results, as predicted, show that the various groups place relatively different importance on the variables, although several emerge as important to all groups. The analysis of committee placements indicates a tendency for placements more restrictive than those made in the individual task.     

损益框架和损益概率对不同年级儿童风险决策的影响

摘 要 为探讨任务框架和自信水平对不同年级儿童风险决策的影响,采用3（年级：二/四/六年级）×2（任务框架：获益/损失）×2（自信水平：过度自信/自信不足）的组间实验设计,在情境性实验任务中探查177名儿童风险决策的发展特点。结果表明：（1）不同年级儿童在风险决策中表现出不同的发展特点,二年级儿童比六年级儿童更倾向于冒险,而四年级前后则是儿童风险决策发展的关键期、转折期;（2）儿童风险决策中存在框架效应,表现出偏好反转现象,与在获益情境下更偏好于保守决策相比,在损失情境下的儿童更偏好冒险决策;（3）自信水平并未对儿童的风险决策产生影响。     

Decision Development in Computer-Assisted Group Decision Making

New computer technologies to aid group communication and decision making are becoming increasingly widespread. This study analyzes how one such technology, a group decision support system (GDSS), affected how group decisions developed over time. The study contrasted decision paths in groups using the GDSS with groups using the same procedural structures incorporated in the GDSS manually and with groups using no procedural structures. A flexible phase mapping method was employed to map group decision paths. The resulting set of seven decision paths varied in both sequence and number of decision phases. An optimal matching procedure was used to compute similarity measures among the 40 paths, and cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling were used to generate an empirical taxonomy of decision paths. Results indicated that the nature of decision paths varied both across the three conditions and within conditions. The decision path types were also related to three outcome variables: consensus change, perceived decision quality, and decision scheme satisfaction. Results indicated that those decision paths that most resembled logical normative sequences had superior outcomes to those that did not.     

愿望采择发展水平对幼儿情感决策的影响

选取148名4岁儿童, 运用实验法考察了幼儿的愿望采择发展水平对其情感决策的影响。结果表明: (1) 幼儿的愿望采择水平对其情感决策具有显著影响。情境中他人愿望信息充足时, 幼儿会采择他人愿望并以此为线索为他人决策, 但对线索的利用程度受其愿望采择水平的制约。(2) 在无关于他人愿望信息提示的条件下, 4岁儿童为他人与为自己的情感决策不存在显著差异。(3) 4岁儿童能够采择他人的单一愿望, 但其冲突愿望采择能力还不成熟。     

Regret in Decision Making

Decision research has only recently started to take seriously the role of emotions in choices and decisions. Regret is the emotion that has received the most attention. In this article, we sample a number of the initial regret studies from psychology and economics, and trace some of the complexities and contradictions to which they led. We then sketch a new theory, decision justification theory (DJT), which synthesizes several apparently conflicting findings. DJT postulates two core components of decision–related regret, one associated with the (comparative) evaluation of the outcome, the other with the feeling of self–blame for having made a poor choice. We reinterpret several existing studies in DJT terms. We then report some new studies that directly tested (and support) DJT, and propose a number of research issues that follow from this new approach to regret.     

The Impact of Depression on Self–Other Discrepancies in Decision Making

Although there is a small but growing body of literature on how people make risky decisions for others and predict others' decisions, results seem to be contradictory. The authors contribute to the understanding of these mixed results by investigating how depression affects self–other discrepancies in decision making and the psychological processes that underlie these discrepancies. In an experiment, depressed and nondepressed individuals read a series of scenarios involving decisions about health, money, and interpersonal relationships. They then indicated which of two options they would choose for themselves or for another person, or predicted which option this person would choose for himself or herself. Finally, participants reported benefits and drawbacks of the decisions (i.e., cognitions) and feelings about risk. Depressed individuals were less prone to bias when they predicted others' decisions than nondepressed individuals. Feelings about risk played a key role in determining the direction and the magnitude of this bias. In contrast, both depressed and nondepressed individuals showed bias when they made decisions for others. This bias affected their decisions in opposing ways and was determined by cognitions. This bias is consistent with literature showing that depression is associated with an increased sensitivity to social risks. The authors provide a theoretical explanation of self–other discrepancies in decision making in depressed and nondepressed individuals and conclude that the results support the assumption that depression is associated with psychological processes whose role is to increase sensitivity to social threats rather than with a more general negative bias in cognitive functioning. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

不同反应线索条件下调节匹配对建议采纳的影响

研究的目的是为了探究不同反应线索条件下调节匹配对建议采纳的影响。实验中有两个反应线索：言语性反应线索(实验一)与非言语性反应线索(实验二), 两个实验均采用2(调节取向：促进/防御)×2(建议策略：渴望/警惕)的混合设计。实验一、二的被试分别是81和79名在校大学生, 年龄均在19~25岁之间。实验结果表明, 在言语反应线索条件下, 调节匹配时人们对建议的采纳程度更高; 在非言语性反应线索条件下, 防御取向时, 调节匹配时人们显著提高了建议的采纳程度, 但促进取向条件人们对建议的采纳程度无明显差异。结果表明在促进取向下非言语性反应线索对调节匹配具有干扰作用, 这个结果值得进一步研究。     

The Impact of Trait Anxiety on Self‐frame and Decision Making

The present study investigated how trait anxiety influenced the formation of a self‐frame and decision making. Participants (N = 1044) responded to the Trait Anxiety Inventory. Those with trait anxiety scores ±1 Z score from the sample mean (N = 328) were recalled to respond to the self‐frame questionnaire. The results suggested that trait anxiety differences could result in differences in the editing of decision‐making information, thereby influencing the risky choice. Compared with the low trait anxiety group, participants from the high trait anxiety group showed a greater tendency to use negative vocabulary to construct their self‐frame and tended to choose conservative plans. Self‐frame suppressed the influence of trait anxiety on decision making. These results further confirmed the hypothesis that individual differences in personality traits might influence the processing of information in a framed decision task. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

孤独症个体的公平决策：心理理论和自我/他人情绪识别的作用

研究通过最后通牒任务,考查孤独症儿童在公平任务中的决策,以及心理理论和识别自我/他人情绪对决策的影响。29名孤独症儿童和三组对照组儿童参加实验结果发现,孤独症儿童在任务中面对不同分配比例的接受率（2:8、3:7）与对照组之间存在显著差异。心理理论能力和自我情绪识别都与决策存在相关：当处于不公平的情况下（1:9、2:8、3:7）,通过心理理论任务的孤独症儿童才会拒绝接受不公平分配,儿童也会感觉到不高兴并且做出拒绝的决定。     

行为决策研究的新取向——基于经验的决策

基于经验的决策是指,在统计概率情境中,个体通过重复选择与反馈获得选项的收益分布信息后进行的决策.基于经验的决策的研究范式主要包括探索-利用范式和探索→利用范式.其暗含的决策人假设是朴素直觉统计学家.其研究关注的主要内容是描述-经验的差异及其原因,以及基于经验的决策内部过程.未来的研究主要从描述-经验差异的原因、描述性决策范式下的结论的重新检验、基于经验的决策的解释模型及其应用研究等方面进行探讨.     

Self-Evaluation Bias of Social Comparisons in Ethical Decision Making: The Impact of Accountability

The purpose of this paper is to examine how accountability and judgment biases that occur in social comparisons may be related to ethical decision making. Using Jones' (1991 ) model as the theoretical framework to investigate this phenomenon, we found that self-enhancing individuals (i.e., those who thought they were more ethical in comparison to their peers) demonstrated higher responsiveness to increases in accountability than did self-effacing individuals (i.e., those who thought they were less ethical in comparison to their peers). We discuss these findings and outline the implications for future ethics research. Further, we provide practical guidance to those who administer ethics compliance programs on effective ways of facilitating ethical behavior in organizations.     

决策过程中的记忆可提取性效用

记忆的可提取性效用是人们在评估过往事件时所感受到的愉悦或满意程度, 这种评估建立在人们从记忆中提取出的信息基础上。研究发现, 人们对过往事件进行评估时会出现违反效用最大化原则的决策, 主要表现在三个实验现象上：峰终律、时长忽视和违背单调叠加性。研究者多从原型判断的角度去理解这些现象, 但可提取性效用是否还有其他内在机制仍然有待进一步研究。     

Religion and Political Decision Making

Influential political theorists suggest that religious differences in political life may be overcome through shared commitment to political processes. In this article, I subject the underlying assumptions of this proposition to empirical inquiry. When faced with substantive conflict over policy outcomes, do religious persons defer to a political process for resolution? And if so, to which political process do they defer? Through a novel interview exercise with 61 respondents from a variety of religious backgrounds, I find a general willingness to defer to a legitimate political process, even if it results in an undesirable outcome that violates religious (or other) political preferences. However, I also find that a political process need not be democratic to be seen as legitimate, and that process preferences do not map onto religious differences.     

决策中的图形框架效应

决策框架效应作为一种违背不变性原则的非理性偏差, 已经得到研究的广泛证实。本研究突破了传统研究中主要由语言描述引发框架效应的限制, 从图形表征这一新的视角对图形框架效应做了深入探讨。本研究共包括6个实验, 通过操纵选项在不同图形表征版本中物理属性差异的突出性, 发现在表达信息不变的情况下, 人们判断和决策的偏好会受到图形表征的影响, 即出现了图形框架效应。研究结果表明, 图形框架效应普遍存在于各种决策情境以及各种图形表征方式中。基于属性替代理论和齐当别原则, 我们提出了一种解释图形框架效应内部作用机制的两阶段心理加工模型--图形编辑的齐当别模型(The Graph-edited Equate-to-differentiate Model, GEM)。