Why cannot reasons change your moral decisions? Because they are not persuasive enough: A comment on Stanley et al. (2018)

Stanley et al. (2018) found that the consideration of reasons rarely induced people to change their moral decisions. We challenged this article by assuming what caused such a null or weak effect was that the persuasiveness of reasons provided to oppose the initial decisions was not strong enough. To verify our assumption, this study used Stanley et al.’s (2018) experimental paradigm and manipulated the levels of persuasiveness of reasons. The results revealed (1) that not only strong opposing reasons but also weak affirming reasons could induce changes in moral decision-making and increase decision confidence after altering the decisions; (2) that people with a weak decision confidence tended to change their initial decisions after evaluation of reasons; and (3) that people who maintained their decisions after considering weak opposing reasons enhanced rather than reduced their decision confidence. Overall, these findings demonstrated that moral decision change was a composite outcome of the interaction among reason type, reason persuasiveness and initial decision confidence and that low-quality argumentation had a boomerang effect on moral persuasion. This study re-lifted the role of rational reasoning in moral decision-making and revising, thus posing important amendments to Stanley et al.’s (2018) findings.     

Risk strategy under task complexity: a multivariate analysis of behaviour in a naturalistic setting

This study complements the existing literature on decision-making processes and outcomes in complex settings by exploring the impact of different types of complexity on risk strategies in a naturalistic setting. The study analyses a large sample of decisions made by individuals in UK offcourse betting markets, a fertile environment for observing both a variety of risk strategies and a range of task complexities. Specifically, the investigation focuses on the comparative impacts of complexity defined in terms, respectively, of alternatives and attributes. The results suggest that the risk strategy employed is affected by task complexity. Complexity does not affect the size of risk accepted but alternative- and attribute-based complexity together influence the propensity to accept greater degrees of risk. In addition, the effect of attribute-based complexity on risk taking appears to be modified by the use of risk-hedging strategies. The results are observed to corroborate some earlier work on decision process and outcome; where differences with earlier findings are identified, some possible explanations are offered. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Valuing the future: a MADA example involving nuclear waste storage

Intertemporal decision making involves decisions that have consequences that span several periods of time and often extend far into the future. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and highlight the differences associated with different evaluation methods designed to cope with the long-term impacts of a decision including discounting. The concepts and ideas are illustrated in the context of a decision about a nuclear waste facility. We show how applying different discounting methodologies can greatly affect the decision made, especially over long time periods. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The decision tree polytope and its application to sequential decision problems

This paper describes a new mathematical programming approach to sequential decision problems that have an underlying decision tree structure. The approach, based upon a characterization of strategies as extreme points of a 0–1 polytope called the ‘decision tree polytope’, is particularly suited to the direct examination of risk-return and other tradeoffs amongst strategies. However, it can also be used for conventional utility maximization if a utility function is available. Further, the approach requires no algorithmic development—it can be implemented using commercially available algebraic modeling software and can solve large problems. A related, and already known, approach can be used for some more general Markov decision problems. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal trade-offs of multiple factors in transfer pricing problems

Transfer pricing problems have been extensively researched by a number of scholars. It is well recognized that transfer pricing problems have a multiple-criteria (objectives) feature and can be formulated as a model of multiple-criteria linear programming. However, few methods have the capability of dealing with all possible optimal trade-offs of multiple criteria in optimal solutions of the models. In this paper a linear multiple-factor model is developed to provide managers with a more systematic and comprehensive scenario of all possible optimal transfer prices depending on both multiple criteria and multiple constraint levels. The trade-offs of all possible optimal transfer prices can be used as a basis for managers of a corporation to make a high-quality decision in selecting their transfer pricing systems for business competition. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multiple-objective linear programming model for the citrus rootstock selection problem in Florida

Citrus is one of Florida's key agricultural crops, with annual production accounting for over 70% of all U.S. production. During the 1970s and 1980s, citrus blight, tristeza and freezes caused citrus rootstock selection to become a critical issue in Florida, and it remains so today. This paper describes a multiple-objective linear programming model that we have developed for solving the citrus roostock selection problem in Florida. The model has four objective functions. These functions, together with the constraints of the model, capture the main factors that Florida citrus growers use in choosing portfolios of rootstocks for planting in their groves. We tested the usefulness of this model by solving an experimental application for the Fort Pierce area with the interactive STEM algorithm. From our research we conclude that, when properly solved with the aid of STEM, the multiple-objective linear programming model has the potential to serve Florida citrus growers as a useful decision aid in formulating rootstock selection plans. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A note on the use of goal programming for the multiplicative AHP

The main aim of this paper is to identify the opportunities of utilizing goal programming (GP) in the multiplicative analytic hierarchy process (MAHP). It starts with the issue of weight derivation from judgemental matrices. The use of GP for the weight derivation problem is not new, but GP is viewed in this paper from the perspective of augmenting the capabilities of the widely used row geometric mean method (RGMM) of the logarithmic least squares technique (LLST). Different possible approaches using GP are discussed. It is shown that the formulation of the GP problem can be easily modified to provide the same weights as those of the LLST. While this proposed GP technique is not superior to the RGMM in terms of computational ease or speed, it is quite useful in solving certain other problems of the MAHP, such as interval judgements and missing judgements, which cannot be readily solved by the RGMM. The proposed technique provides extensive scope for utilizing the vast literature on non-linear programming, say, for conducting sensitivity analysis. It also has the potential to be useful to more complicated issues of the MAHP, such as group decision making and interlevel dependence, hitherto little explored areas of the MAHP. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Common Framework for Describing Some Outranking Methods

Outranking methods such as ELECTRE have been proposed for aggregating preference information on several criteria into an overall preference structure in cases where the multiattribute utility approach is not appropriate or feasible. We present here a framework in which such methods may be described and, hopefully in the future, axiomatically characterized. We point out several characteristics such as independence and semiordinality which seem to be pertinent to delineate the field of application of these procedures. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

单字词的学习年龄对小学生汉字识别的影响（Ⅰ）

该研究以小学一、三、五年级的学生为被试,采用字词的真假判断任务,选取分别在语文课本中一、三、五年级出现的三组字(分别记为A、B、C三组字)为真字,考察了单字词的学习年龄(LA)对小学生汉字识别时间的影响。结果表明：无论纵向比较还是横向比较,单字词的学习年龄(LA)对小学生的真假字判断反应时都有显著影响。