Dialectical Thinking in Consumer Decision Making

In this article, we examine the four processes of dialectical thinking: interconnection, development and change, transformation of quantitative into qualitative, and unity and struggle of opposites. We argue that the decisions of some consumers reflect dialectical thinking, at least some of the time.     

Rational Choice and Moral Decision Making in Research

University psychology and sociology researchers rated the likelihood they would engage in misconduct as described in 9 research scenarios, while also making moral judgments and rating the likelihood of discovery and sanctions. Multiple regression revealed significant effects across various scenarios for moral judgment as well as shame and embarrassment on reducing misconduct. The effects on misconduct of the perceived probability of sanctions were conditioned on moral judgments in some scenarios. The results have implications for how universities address the prevention, detection, and sanctioning of research misconduct.     

Graph‐Framing Effects in Decision Making

This study manipulated the graphical representation of options by framing the physical characters in figures and found that preferences could be affected even when the words and numbers of the problem were constant. Based on attribute substitution theory and an equate‐to‐differentiate approach, we proposed a two‐process model of graph‐framing effects. In the first mental process, the graph‐editing process, the physical features (e.g., distance, size) represented in the graph are visually edited, and the perceived numerical difference between the options is judged based on its physical features. The second mental process, the preferential choice process, occurs by an equate‐to‐differentiate approach in which people seek to equate the difference between options on the dimension on which the difference is smaller, thus leaving the greater other‐dimensional difference to be the determinant of the final choice. Four experiments were tested for graph‐framing effects. Experiment 1 found a graph‐framing effect in coordinate graphs resting on the (de)compression of the scales employed in the figures. Experiment 2 revealed additional graph‐framing effects in other question scenarios and showed that preference changes were mediated by perceived numerical distances. Experiment 3 further confirmed the presence of graph‐framing effects in sector graphs similar to those found in coordinate ones. Experiment 4 suggested that such graph‐framing effects could be eliminated when logical processing (e.g., introducing a mathematical operation before a choice task) was encouraged. This paper discusses related research and a possible substrate basis for graph‐framing effects. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Competing Perspectives on Legal Decision Making in Early Modern Ashkenaz

The respective roles of jurists and judges in the decision-making process offers a valuable perspective on judicial practice and the delivery of justice in early modern Ashkenazic communities. This essay is concerned with differences in the approaches of poseqim (jurists) and dayanim (judges); it suggests that these distinctions were reflections of the institutional settings in which they worked, the size of their communities, and regional factors. Data unearthed from communal records and rabbinic responsa offer important evidence of disparities between the offices of early modern dayanim and poseqim, their distinct personae, and their respective views of how judicial rulings are decided. Moreover, these differences were related to the slow transition to fixed rabbinic-communal courts in western and central Europe that was a product of forces peculiar to the resettlement of Jews in the west, the deliberate development of communal traditions, and the role of the enlightened absolutist state. The impact of the growing recourse to non-Jewish courts, especially as it evinced differences between eastern and western/central European history and culture, was also a factor. Clearly, regional forces influenced the distinct legal efforts and perspectives of judges and jurists, as did the discrete functions they were assigned, their particular training, and the institutional standing of rabbinic courts. These differences became more glaring in the two centuries prior to the collapse of the ancien régime, as structural changes in western Ashkenazic communities contributed to a new Jewish legal culture.     

Cognitive Biases in Visual Pilots' Weather‐Related Decision Making

Flights into deteriorating weather conditions are a significant cause of fatalities in general aviation accidents. This study investigated whether three common cognitive heuristics (anchoring and adjustment, confirmation, outcome) could lead to cognitive biases that might adversely affect pilots' weather‐related decision making. Study 1 found that weather reports obtained before a flight affected how pilots interpreted weather cues during flights (anchoring and adjustment). Study 2 found no evidence that pilots favoured disconfirmatory evidence over confirmatory evidence when deciding which environmental cues were most useful in deciding whether to continue a flight (confirmation). Study 3 found that pilots interpreted the decisions of pilots who flew into deteriorating weather conditions more favourably when the outcome was positive than when it was negative (outcome). These findings suggest that use of these three cognitive heuristics may lead to pilots continuing to fly into deteriorating weather conditions when the safer option is to divert or turn back. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

急性胰腺炎临床决策中的辩证思维观

急性胰腺炎（AP）是临床常见危重症。近年来AP诊断和治疗取得了令人瞩目的进展,及早诊断和恰当、合理的生命支持治疗极大改善了AP患者的预后。临床上AP患者病情往往复杂多变,要求在极短时间内做出正确的临床决策,科学理性的临床决策思维对AP患者的合理诊治起着非常重要的指导作用。临床医师应努力学习和充分灵活地运用辩证思维,为对AP进行科学的临床诊疗决策提供合理的思路。     

Feelings and Consumer Decision Making: The Appraisal‐Tendency Framework

This article presents the Appraisal‐Tendency Framework (ATF; Lerner & Keltner, 2000, 2001; Lerner & Tiedens, 2006) as a basis for predicting the influence of specific emotions on consumer decision making. In particular, the ATF addresses how and why specific emotions carry over from past situations to color future judgments and choices. After reviewing the main assumptions and the 5 main principles of the framework, 2 streams of research are presented. One stream addresses emotional carryover effects on the assessment of risk; the other addresses carryover effects on the assessment of monetary value. Because risk assessment and value assessment are fundamental psychological processes, understanding them has the potential to yield manifold implications for consumer judgment and decision making. The concluding sections highlight limitations and future directions of the framework.     

Triple Bottomline Many‐Objective‐Based Decision Making for a Land Use Management Problem

A land use many‐objective optimization problem for a 1500‐ha farm with 315 paddocks was formulated with 14 objectives (maximizing sawlog production, pulpwood production, milksolids, beef, sheep meat, wool, carbon sequestration, water production, income and Earnings Before Interest and Tax; and minimizing costs, nitrate leaching, phosphorus loss and sedimentation). This was solved using a modified Reference‐point‐based Non‐dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II augmented by simulated epigenetic operations. The search space had complex variable interactions and was based on economic data and several interoperating simulation models. The solution was an approximation of a Hyperspace Pareto Frontier (HPF), where each non‐dominated trade‐off point represented a set of land‐use management actions taken within a 10‐year period and their related management options, spanning a planning period of 50 years. A trade‐off analysis was achieved using Hyper‐Radial Visualization (HRV) by collapsing the HPF into a 2‐D visualization capability through an interactive virtual reality (VR)‐based method, thereby facilitating intuitive selection of a sound compromise solution dictated by the decision makers' preferences under uncertainty conditions. Four scenarios of the HRV were considered emphasizing economic, sedimentation and nitrate leaching aspects—giving rise to a triple bottomline (i.e. the economic, environmental and social complex, where the social aspect is represented by the preferences of the various stakeholders). Highlights of the proposed approach are the development of an innovative epigenetics‐based multi‐objective optimizer, uncertainty incorporation in the search space data and decision making on a multi‐dimensional space through a VR‐simulation‐based visual steering process controlled at its core by a multi‐criterion decision making‐based process. This approach has widespread applicability to many other ‘wicked’ societal problem‐solving tasks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intuition in Judgment and Decision Making: Extensive Thinking Without Effort

We claim that intuition is capable of quickly processing multiple pieces of information without noticeable cognitive effort. We advocate a component view stating that intuitive processes in judgment and decision making are responsible for information integration and output formation (e.g., preference, choice), whereas analytic thinking mainly guides input formation such as search, generation, and change of information. We present empirical evidence corroborating this notion and show that integration of information and preference formation works without cognitive control and is unconstrained by the amount of encoded information and cognitive capacity. We discuss the implications of our findings for the bounded rationality perspective and the multiple strategy approach to judgment and decision making. Finally we outline a connectionist framework for integrating intuitive and analytic thought processes.     

关于出生缺陷临床干预的决策与思考

出生缺陷是婴儿死亡、儿童和成人残疾的主要原因之一。不仅给社会带来巨大经济损失,同时还给家庭和个人带来了精神、道义负担以及痛苦。在其临床干预的决策上临床医生必须从以下三个方面努力:(1)丰富相关知识,把握科技发展动态,努力提高产前诊断正确率并对病人进行科学的引导;(2)遵守国家法律法规的前提下尊重个人意愿;(3)尊重医学伦理学的同时尊重国情。从而最大程度地减少或避免其给国家、社会和家庭带来的损失,同时消除医患纠纷,创造和谐的医疗环境。     

Exploring Decision Making Around Therapist Self‐Disclosure in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Background

Therapist self‐disclosure (TSD) usage varies greatly among different psychotherapy orientations. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that there are reasons for its judicious use, and a small number of researchers have proposed guidelines for how TSD should be used to help therapists across psychotherapy models make decisions around disclosure. However, there is almost no literature specifically exploring how cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) practitioners make decisions around employing TSD within the CBT framework.

Objective

This study aimed to explore how experienced CBT practitioners make decisions around TSD.

Method

In‐depth qualitative interviews were conducted with six clinical psychologists who were trained and experienced in CBT, and the interviews were analysed thematically.

Results

There were two overarching themes in terms of how they made decisions to self‐disclose: (A) the rules for TSD use, which included sub‐themes (a) it must have a clear purpose, (b) it must fit, (c) the therapist must maintain boundaries, and (d) the therapist must always reflect on his/her use of TSD; and (B) how they use TSD, which included subthemes of (a) using it as a tool for change and (b) using it to manage the therapeutic relationship.

Conclusion

Participants’ decisions on whether or not to self‐disclose were strongly influenced by the CBT model, and this process went beyond what is suggested in the transtheoretical literature. Understanding this process may lead to the development of CBT‐specific guidelines for making TSD‐related decisions.     

Feelings and Consumer Decision Making: Extending the Appraisal‐Tendency Framework

The target article (Han, Lerner, & Keltner, 2007) presents the Appraisal‐Tendency Framework as a basis for predicting the influence of specific emotions on consumer decision making. The 3 thought‐provoking commentaries by Shiv (2007); Yates (2007); and Cavanaugh, Bettman, Luce, and Payne (2007) highlighted the need to (a) distinguish different types of emotional inputs; (b) specify constructs and mechanisms more concretely; and (c) extend the framework in new, creative ways. This response integrates the specific comments into overarching themes and addresses them.     

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.     

Consumer Decision Making and Image Theory: Understanding Value‐Laden Decisions

Consumers are often confronted with value‐laden decisions that challenge their principles and beliefs. For example, many consumers with strong social responsibility principles consider the effects of general corporate behavior (e.g., political views, environmental disasters) and of the product's manufacture, consumption, or disposal (e.g., animal testing, environmental harm) on society's overall well‐being. Because these product dimensions do not fit easily into traditional decision theories, a new conceptual framework that incorporates and emphasizes the consumer's enduring principles and values is explored in this study. The results indicate that image theory (Beach & Mitchell, 1987) provides a useful structure for describing the decision process in a value‐laden decision context. This study also expands our understanding of image theory by examining all 3 images (values, goals, and strategies) simultaneously in the same decision context for the first time.     

One Night of Sleep Loss Impairs Innovative Thinking and Flexible Decision Making

Recent findings with clinically oriented neuropsychological tests suggest that one night without sleep causes particular impairment to tasks requiring flexible thinking and the updating of plans in the light of new information. This relatively little investigated field of sleep deprivation research has real-world implications for decision makers having lost a night's sleep. To explore this latter perspective further, we adapted a dynamic and realistic marketing decision making “game” embodying the need for these skills, and whereby such performance could be measured. As the task relied on the comprehension of a large amount of written information, a critical reasoning test was also administered to ascertain whether any failure at the marketing game might lie with information acquisition rather than with failures in decision making. Ten healthy highly motivated and trained participants underwent two counterbalanced 36 h trials, sleep vs no sleep. The critical reasoning task was unaffected by sleep loss, whereas performance at the game significantly deteri orated after 32–36 h of sleep loss, when sleep deprivation led to more rigid thinking, increased perseverative errors, and marked difficulty in appreciating an updated situation. At this point, and despite the sleep-deprived participants' best efforts to do well, their play collapsed, unlike that of the nonsleep-deprived participants.