Encouraging Prosocial Decisions: The Role of Fairness Salience and Uncertainty

Although the decision to engage in prosocial behavior has received research attention, the literature offers a limited understanding of fairness and uncertainty as antecedents. We propose that one can encourage prosocial decision making simply by invoking the notion of fairness because of its effects on the perceived trustworthiness of the invoking party. We also elucidate the complex role of uncertainty in prosocial decisions in that it has a negative effect while also serving to strengthen the positive effect of fairness salience. Our ideas are tested in two prosocial decision contexts, including participative pricing (i.e., “pay what you want”) and charitable giving. Data from an archival study of a naturally occurring event and two controlled experiments offer support for our arguments. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Time Delays on Consumers' Use of Different Criteria for Product Purchase Decisions

Recent research has suggested that time delays might result in consumers' reliance on different sets of criteria in making product purchase decisions. A critical criterion among these factors is consumers' product category knowledge. The present study suggests that category knowledge mediates temporally distanced purchase decisions. When product category knowledge is retrieved, it has no or marginal immediate influence on consumers' decisions. However, retrieved product category knowledge has a substantial influence on consumers' decisions if these are delayed, that is, when decisions are made only after some time had elapsed since the exposure to product information. The function of product category knowledge within the decision predictors is conceptualized and demonstrated empirically. Its significance in the marketing reality which involves numerous decisions that are obtained in delay, is discussed.     

The Uncertainty Paradox: Perceived Threat Moderates the Effect of Uncertainty on Political Tolerance

People respond to dissimilar political beliefs in a variety of ways, ranging from openness and acceptance to closed‐mindedness and intolerance. While there is reason to believe that uncertainty may influence political tolerance, the direction of this influence remains unclear. We propose that threat moderates the effect of uncertainty on tolerance; when safe, uncertainty leads to greater tolerance, yet when threatened, uncertainty leads to reduced tolerance. Using independent manipulations of threat and uncertainty, we provide support for this hypothesis. This research demonstrates that, although feelings of threat and uncertainty can be independent, it is also important to understand their interaction.     

The Effect of Defendant's Plea on Mock Juror Decisions

Abstract

The study examined the attributional and attractional effects of admission or denial of a mistake in interaction with the stimulus person's status, the seriousness of the consequences of the mistake, and the certainty of the evidence. The factorial design of the experiment was 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 (Status x Consequences x Evidence x Admission). Male undergraduate college students in Bombay (N = 480) read a passage about a mislabeling incident in a pharmaceutical concern and then rated the stimulus person on several variables. Admission of the mistake elicited the most favorable ratings. The no-statement condition received slightly more negative evaluations than the denial condition. Higher status led to greater responsibility attribution, but seriousness of consequences did not. The most liked stimulus person was the high-status person who admitted his mistake in the condition of serious consequences and ambiguous evidence.     

Risk,Uncertainty, and Gender Stereotypes in Healthcare Decisions

Disparities in healthcare access, treatment, and outcomes are widely prevalent for women and minorities. At the same time, healthcare choices have become increasingly intricate and correspondingly uncertain. We review contemporary issues in healthcare for women, with emphasis on access to care and on healthcare disparities. In the belief that forewarned is forearmed, we review the role of sexism and the psychology of decision making in producing health disparities. In the face of this complexity, therapists can help women seek sound healthcare and make informed choices. Implications for feminist therapy are suggested that emphasize client empowerment and agency.     

Detection and Selection Decisions with Conditional Feedback: Interaction of Task Uncertainty and Base Rate

Effects of task uncertainty on decision thresholds in a multiple cue decision task were examined under two types of feedback and three base rate conditions. In most such decision experiments, participants receive feedback after every trial (full feedback) with a single (usually .5) base rate. Our experiment explored conditional (decision‐contingent) feedback, in a task representing a detection problem (passenger screening) in which the decision maker receives no feedback unless the decision is positive (search the passenger). Increased uncertainty made all dependent measures worse. Task uncertainty had detrimental effects on both judgment and decision making, and interacted with effects of feedback and base rate. Decision performance was better with full feedback than with conditional feedback, but not by much. There may be no single unifying explanation for results of our base rate manipulation. Conditional feedback generally resulted in fewer positive decisions than full feedback, but not in the low (.1) base rate condition. Results provide partial support for constructivist encoding and for accuracy maximization with moderate and high base rates, but not with a low base rate. Our results indicated lower selection rates with conditional feedback compared with full feedback in moderate and high base rate conditions, and a more exploratory strategy with higher selection rates with conditional feedback compared with full feedback when base rate was low. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Framing of Decisions: Effect on Active and Passive Risk Avoidance

Decision makers intending to avoid risk in a decision situation can choose a less risky alternative (passive risk avoidance) or intervene actively in an alternative applying a risk‐defusing action (active risk avoidance). In Experiment 1 (64 participants), we compared active and passive risk defusing in two framing conditions. In the negative frame, in the uncertain alternative, a change to the worse was possible; in the positive frame, a change to an improvement was possible. Each participant decided in both framing conditions. As expected, active risk avoidance behavior for preventing a negative outcome (i.e., in the negative frame) was more likely than for promoting a positive one (i.e., in the positive frame). If decision makers did not or could not actively defuse the risk, they chose in correspondence to the classical pattern: risk avoidance in the positive frame and risk seeking in the negative one. We replicated the latter result in a second experiment (32 participants). The classical framing pattern in passive risk avoidance in both experiments is remarkable, because participants were not presented or did not search for exact probabilities. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of Mood and Social Outlook on Hypothetical Juridic Decisions1

Data are reported for a laboratory experiment which examines both the impact of information about remote social events on judgments of defendants' guilt or innocence in two court cases and the roles of cognitive and affective elements in mediating these judgments. Subjects were exposed to one of four pretested news bulletins which covaried cognitive factors (positive or negative social information) and affective ones (positive or negative mood stimuli). In accord with previous findings, the results indicate that social information and the changes in social outlook that it caused were of primary importance in altering subjects' judgments about defendants. Subjects who heard positive social information in radio newscasts were more lenient in their judgments of defendants than were those who heard negative social information. Additional findings pertaining to the mediators of this effect suggest that positive mood amplified the impact of social information whatever its direction, while negative mood attenuated it.     

情绪的确定性评价对信息加工的影响

检验了情绪的效价和确定性评价对个体的信息加工策略选择的影响及其心理机制。结果表明,情绪效价对个体的信息加工方式的影响会受到情绪确定性评价的调节。高确定评价的情绪中,积极情绪的被试更倾向于采用启发式加工,消极情绪的被试更倾向于采用系统式加工。积极情绪中,高确定评价情绪的被试更倾向于采用启发式加工,低确定评价情绪的被试更倾向于采用系统式加工。当个体对自己产生情绪的原因进行合理归因后,情绪效价和确定性评价对个体信息加工方式的影响效应都消失了,说明情绪的效价和确定性评价均以信息的方式对对个体信息加工策略的选择产生影响。     

禀赋效应对产品更换决策的影响

以禀赋效应理论为研究基础, 通过两个情景实验对产品更换过程中买卖双方的决策心理进行了研究。实验1表明, 在以旧换新活动中新产品的买方对旧产品的价格有高估的倾向, 对新产品的价格有低估的倾向; 相反, 新产品的卖方对旧产品的价格有低估的倾向, 而对于新产品的价格有高估的倾向, 这说明产品更换决策中存在着双重的禀赋效应。实验2表明, 新产品的买方对旧产品的属性评价显著高于新产品的卖方, 对新产品的属性评价显著低于新产品的卖方, 说明属性评价也存在禀赋效应的特征。双重禀赋效应的存在从消费者行为的角度解释了为什么消费者会出现创新抵制行为。     

Malleable Mental Accounting: The Effect of Flexibility on the Justification of Attractive Spending and Consumption Decisions

Mental accounts are often characterized as self‐control devices that consumers employ to prevent excess spending and consumption. However, under certain conditions of ambiguity, the mental accounting process is malleable; that is, consumers have flexibility in assigning expenses to different mental accounts. We demonstrate how consumers flexibly classify expenses, or construct accounts, to justify spending. An expense that can be assigned to more than one account (i.e., an ambiguous expense) is more likely to be incurred than an unambiguous expense that is constrained either by existing budgets or by previously constructed accounts. We explore the justification processes that underlie these results and their implications for mental accounts as self‐control devices.     

不确定感与从众：决断性与结构需求的中介作用

不确定感伴随从众的现象普遍存在,然而其内在加工过程及个体差异仍不明确。对804名大学生被试进行问卷调查,结果显示：（1）不确定感与从众正相关;（2）决断性与结构需求完全中介不确定感与从众的关系,且存在性别差异;二者关系上,女性更大程度上受决断性的中介,其次为结构需求;男性受决断性和结构需求的平行中介。结果支持不确定−认同理论和认知闭合两阶段模型观点,为不确定状态下不同性别人群从众行为的管理提供了理论依据。     

The Effect of Race on Decisions by Judges and Other Officers of the Court1

This study examined the impact of the ethnic group of defendant and victim on perceptions of a simulated trial. The subjects were judges, prosecuting attorneys, defense attorneys, and probation officers. People of different racial groups are perceived and would be treated differently by the respondents. Most respondents perceived the White defendant as a more serious offender than a minority defendant. However, there was one very important exception—judges. Judges indicated that a minority defendant who victimized a White was more likely to commit future crimes. Minority respondents and different occupational groups responded in diverse ways. Chen's filtering model of case processing in the criminal justice system (1991) is used to explain these results.     

不同促销方式对产品购买决策的影响—— 基于解释水平理论视角的研究

赠品促销与价格促销对消费者购买决策的影响研究结果尚存在分歧。根据解释水平理论, 通过三个实验探究了赠品促销产品组合与价格促销产品组合在不同任务类型、不同时间距离条件下的促销效果差异。结果表明：(1)不同时间距离下, 消费者对促销产品决策存在差异。赠品促销方式在近期将来购物场景下的促销效果比在远期将来购物场景下的促销效果更好; 价格促销方式在远期将来购物场景下的促销效果比在近期将来购物场景下的促销效果更好。价格支付意愿任务下, 消费者对远期将来场景下促销产品的感知价值比近期将来购物场景下促销产品的感知价值高; 购买可行性任务下, 消费者对近期将来购物场景下促销产品的感知价值比远期将来购物场景下促销产品的感知价值高。(2)时间距离对促销方式与任务类型的表征水平匹配关系有增强、扩大作用。购买可行性任务下, 与远期将来时间相比, 消费者更倾向于在近期将来时间条件下选择赠品促销产品组合。价格支付意愿任务下, 与近期将来时间相比, 消费者更倾向于在远期将来时间条件下选择价格促销产品组合。     

The Effect of Load Uncertainty on Neuromotor Control in Catching: Gender Differences and Short Foreperiods

Abstract

To reveal how the CNS copes with load uncertainty in catching, electromyography (EMG) was recorded in 15 females and 14 males while catching visually identical balls of known and unknown weights under varied (1–10?s) and constant (1?s) foreperiods (warning time). EMG integrals, which represented total muscle activity, were computed for three time intervals prior to the catch (anticipatory), and one interval after (compensatory). Load uncertainty caused the CNS to utilize an anticipatory strategy in several muscles, primarily during the ball-flight interval, characterized by preparation to catch balls of unknown weight by utilizing an average of 99.7% of the muscle activation used to catch the heaviest ball under the known weight condition. The constant 1?s foreperiod, which permitted precise temporal anticipation of ball release, did not influence the anticipatory strategy adopted by the CNS to cope with load uncertainty. There were no observed differences in the neuromotor control used by men and women to manage load uncertainty in catching, although there was an interesting difference in the way men and women employed the triceps to prepare to catch balls of a known weight.     

The Value of Task Conflict to Group Decisions

We tested the ability of task conflict to improve the quality of decisions made by four‐person groups. In a choice between two entrepreneurial investments, conflict was created by endowing group members with a preference for either one investment or the other. Because the decision was subjective, decision quality was necessarily judged by a process criterion, the reduction in the biased evaluation of new information to support the leading alternative. Groups in which conflict was installed exhibited less bias than individuals, who themselves exhibited less bias than groups without such conflict. Regardless of whether conflict was installed, groups that reached an early consensus exhibited the greatest information bias, while groups that experienced sustained conflict exhibited the least. Before achieving consensus, information bias was not significantly different from zero, but then rose steadily after that agreement. This result identifies one specific mechanism by which conflict can improve the process of group decisions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Influence of Framing on Risky Decisions: A Meta-analysis

In framing studies, logically equivalent choice situations are differently described and the resulting preferences are studied. A meta-analysis of framing effects is presented for risky choice problems which are framed either as gains or as losses. This evaluates the finding that highlighting the positive aspects of formally identical problems does lead to risk aversion and that highlighting their equivalent negative aspects does lead to risk seeking. Based on a data pool of 136 empirical papers that reported framing experiments with nearly 30,000 participants, we calculated 230 effect sizes. Results show that the overall framing effect between conditions is of small to moderate size and that profound differences exist between research designs. Potentially relevant characteristics were coded for each study. The most important characteristics were whether framing is manipulated by changing reference points or by manipulating outcome salience, and response mode (choice vs. rating/judgment). Further important characteristics were whether options differ qualitatively or quantitatively in risk, whether there is one or multiple risky events, whether framing is manipulated by gain/loss or by task-responsive wording, whether dependent variables are measured between- or within- subjects, and problem domains. Sample (students vs. target populations) and unit of analysis (individual vs. group) was not influential. It is concluded that framing is a reliable phenomenon, but that outcome salience manipulations, which constitute a considerable amount of work, have to be distinguished from reference point manipulations and that procedural features of experimental settings have a considerable effect on effect sizes in framing experiments.