Who Takes the Lead in Risky Decision Making? Effects of Group Members' Risk Preferences and Prototypicality

In two experiments, we studied the effects of (a) the extent to which group members are risk seeking in comparison with others in the group and (b) group member prototypicality (the extent to which individuals hold group-typical risk preferences) on the likelihood that group members will take the lead in risky decision making. Participants were led to believe that they engaged in a four-person group discussion and received bogus feedback about their own risk preferences, the risk preferences of the other group members, and the risk preferences of their group as a whole. In Experiment 2, we also manipulated the framing of the decision problem (gain vs. loss frame). Results supported the hypotheses that (a) more risk seeking members are more likely to take the lead and (b) prototypical members are more likely to take the lead when the problem facing the group is ambiguous (i.e., when group risk preferences and decision framing are incongruent), whereas nonprototypical members are more likely to take the lead when the problem facing the group is relatively clear-cut (i.e., when group risk preferences and decision framing are congruent).     

Devil′s Advocacy and Dialectical Inquiry Effects on Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Group Decision Making

For more than 20 years, researchers have investigated the effects of cognitive conflict techniques on the decision making performance of groups and individuals. Past research on two techniques, devil′s advocacy and dialectical inquiry, has shown that both techniques improve group performance over nonconflictual, expert-based approaches. More recently, researchers have begun to investigate how advanced decision and communication technologies can be used to enhance group processing and outcomes. In this paper, we extend both streams of research by reporting the results of a laboratory experiment on the effects devil′s advocacy and dialectical inquiry within face-to-face and computer-mediated groups. The results suggest that groups given the devil′s advocacy treatment developed and considered more alternative solutions to a case problem and selected a higher quality recommendation than those in the dialectical inquiry and expert-based treatments. Computer-mediated groups developed and considered more solution alternatives but required more voting rounds to reach agreement than did face-to-face groups. Computer-mediated groups were more satisfied with the process than face-to-face groups; no differences were found in satisfaction with decision outcome. The implications of the results for future research and practice are discussed.     

Commentary on trop and Stolorow's “defense analysis in self psychology”;

This paper evaluates Kohut's selfobject concept by reviewing the historical context of its origin and the gradual substitution of an emphasis on experience for the ego psychological emphasis on function. When viewed as a dimension of experience, a selfobject experience has the affective quality of vitalization. This modification and extension of Kohut's original concept derives from infant research, especially Stern's revision of affect theory and Lichtenberg's concept of five motivational systems. The paper concludes with an application of the theory of selfobject experience to pathological states, especially those involving addiction.     

“I'll Take Gender Differences for $1000!” Domain-Specific Intellectual Success on “Jeopardy”

A great deal of laboratory research has demonstrated that women underestimate their intellect and abilities, and we studied whether this tendency manifested itself outside the laboratory by examining the performance of men and women on the television game show Jeopardy. Information about the masculinity and femininity of the topic categories for 65 games was collected, and selections, answers,wagering strategies, and earnings were noted for 195 White men and women contestants on the show. Men were more likely than women to appear as contestants, made most of the selections in the game, and won more money. Until the end of the game, men selected and correctly answered a disproportional number of questions from masculine topic categories, which appeared more often during the first round of play. Women chose more feminine and neutral questions than did men, and correctly answered those questions at a proportional rate. Wagering strategies differed late in the game, as men bet a higher percent of their earnings than did women, but only when wagering on masculine topics. Several explanations for differing performance of men and women on Jeopardyare offered, including confidence in ability due to self-estimation of intelligence, differential use of evaluative feedback, and the gender role appropriateness of demonstrating intellect.     

Should Moral Machines be Banned? A Commentary on van Wynsberghe and Robbins “Critiquing the Reasons for Making Artificial Moral Agents”

Science and Engineering Ethics - In a stimulating recent article for this journal (van Wynsberghe and Robbins in Sci Eng Ethics 25(3):719–735. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-018-0030-8 ,...     

The Effect of Multiple Reference Points and Prior Gains and Losses on Managers′ Risky Decision Making

This study examines the impact of two contextual features of decision settings on managers′ risky behavior. Considerable research indicates that decision makers exhibit risk avoiding or risk taking behavior depending upon whether options are viewed as gains or losses with respect to a given reference point. We argue in this paper that multiple points of reference are important determinants of risky behavior in many decision contexts, and that research should explicitly consider their effect to fully understand and predict risky behavior. The analysis of contextual features is extended to consider the impact of prior gains and losses in the second part of the paper. Seventy-two professional corporate managers participated in two experiments that involved a corporate investment decision setting. The setting exemplifies a context that has both multiple important points of reference and prior gains and losses. The data indicated that the presence of multiple relevant reference points results in a complex pattern of risky behavior, where managers′ decisions to accept or avoid risk were affected by the relative positions of risky alternatives with respect to two important points of reference. In particular, a mixture of risk taking and risk avoiding occurred for options between the relevant reference points. The managers were also found to be more willing to accept risk after experiencing a prior gain as opposed to a prior loss. These findings point to the importance of considering such task characteristics when attempting to predict and understand risky behavior across a variety of task contexts.     

Multidimensionality of Well-Being and Spillover Effects Across Life Domains: How Do Parenthood and Personality Affect Changes in Domain-Specific Satisfaction?

Whether having children improves our well-being is a long-standing topic of debate. Demographic and sociological research has investigated changes in individuals’ overall well-being and partnership satisfaction when they become parents. However, little is known about how becoming parent may produce vulnerability—observable as an enduring decrease in well-being—in life domains that are strongly interdependent with the family domain, such as work and leisure. Linking life-course and personality psychology perspectives, the authors examine the trajectories of subjective well-being—measured as satisfaction with life, work, and leisure—3 years before and 3 years after the transition to parenthood. The authors particularly focus on the moderating effects of gender and personality. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1984–2013) and multilevel growth curve modeling, the authors show strong gender-based vulnerability in how people react to parenthood. Although men display a nonlinear pathway of decreasing life satisfaction and a stable trajectory of job satisfaction, women experience more changes in their satisfaction with work and more dramatic decreases in leisure satisfaction. Contrary to most of our expectations, the moderating effects of personality were modest. Extraversion influenced the trajectories of work satisfaction, whereas neuroticism and conscientiousness affected the pathway of leisure satisfaction for women only. This article shows that the transition to parenthood influences well-being trajectories in specific domains, and this influence differs between women and men.     

“Mindless” Decision Making as a Failure of Contextual Reasoning

People often make decisions without reference to vital information, even when such information is readily available. In the present research, the authors addressed the possibility that this tendency may derive from failure to have pertinent information immediately available in the decision context. Participants rated the utility of decisions in either the presence or absence of simple pertinent information. The information provided required no training and was relatively obvious (e.g., if money is spent on a given item, that money will not be available for other expenditures). Presentation of such information in the immediate context of decisions significantly improved participants' abilities to understand their negative consequences. These results indicate that the presentation of pertinent information in immediate decision contexts, even information that is already available through participants' long-term memory, can improve the understanding of decision situations and reduce “mindlessness” in decision processes.     

Commentary on Nebbiosi's “Organizing Patterns in a Dyad and in a Group: Theoretical and Clinical Implications”

Here I comment on Gianni Nebbiosi's paper “Organizing Patterns in a Dyad and in a Group: Theoretical and Clinical Implications.” Nebbiosi's thinking about dyadic and group experience from an intersubjective perspective is reflective of current trends in psychoanalysis—with the emphasis in contemporary theory shifting toward the affective dimension of self-experience. His formulations regarding the essential role of affect regulation in establishing dyadic and group organizing principles are consistent with the main point in intersubjectivity theory—that affects are organizers of self-experience. Nebbiosi develops an overarching conceptual framework and clearly elucidates the central role these organizing principles have in the formation of group identity and group cohesion.