The decoy effect as a covert influence tactic

The purpose of this research was to determine whether individuals could use the decoy effect to influence others' choices. In study 1, undergraduates (n = 50) and executive master's of business administration (EMBA) students (n = 24) read an employee selection scenario in which they were randomly assigned to prefer one of two candidates that were equal in overall attractiveness, but that had different strengths and weaknesses. They were then asked to choose one of three inferior candidates to add to the choice set that would make their preferred candidate more likely to be chosen by other decision makers. The “correct” inferior candidate was asymmetrically dominated—dominated by one of the two existing candidates, but not the other. Participants chose the “correct” decoy candidate at better than chance levels. In study 2, undergraduates and EMBA students (total n = 66) completed a set of four decision tasks, in which they were asked to choose from potential decoy alternatives that would highlight their preferred job candidate or the product they preferred to sell to a customer. Participants again chose the correct option at better than chance levels. When participants provided free‐response reasons for their choices, these responses indicated a fairly strong recognition of the influential nature of creating a dominating relationship. Implications for understanding this effect and how it may be used by hiring managers, sales personnel, and others who attempt to influence others people's decisions at work, are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

胃癌患者影像检查技术的合理选择

随着X线钡餐造影、计算机断层扫描、磁共振成像、超声检查及正电子发射体层摄影等技术的不断发展,各种影像检查方法在胃癌的诊断、术前分期及术后评价等方面被广泛应用,但各种检查技术都有各自的优缺点,我们应该根据胃癌患者的实际情况为其选择正确合理的影像检查技术。     

选项框架和认知负载对风险决策的影响

本研究采用实验法探讨了选项框架和认知负载对风险决策的影响。结果发现:(1)不同的认知负载条件下,被试在正向框架下表现出风险回避,负向框架下表现出风险寻求,出现了框架效应现象;(2)相对于认知负载条件下,被试在无认知负载的负向框架下更偏好于风险选项,而正向框架下的风险偏好没有显著变化,即无认知负载条件下框架效应较强。这表明,框架效应不仅仅是启发式系统作用的结果,分析式系统也在其中发挥着重要的作用。     

宗教资本:从布迪厄到斯达克

"宗教资本"概念对理性选择理论的发展至关重要,然而,"宗教资本"的诸多定义却常常模糊不清,或脱离于其所源出的知识构架。关于"宗教资本"概念,有两种相互独立发展的理论:其一大致属于欧洲,源自韦伯和布迪厄的研究;其二大致属于美国,源自艾纳孔和斯达克的研究。泰瑞·雷对通过对两种理论的比较研究,进而厘清其理论谱系,仔细考察了宗教资本概念及其衍生概念"灵性资本"的应用和批评,并提出了两个具有独创性的修正概念("制度宗教资本"和"民间宗教资本"),以此解决宗教资本概念在学术著作和文章中所出现的问题。     

A decision model for steady-state choice in concurrent chains

Grace and McLean (2006) proposed a decision model for acquisition of choice in concurrent chains which assumes that after reinforcement in a terminal link, subjects make a discrimination whether the preceding reinforcer delay was short or long relative to a criterion. Their model was subsequently extended by Christensen and Grace (2008, 2009a, 2009b) to include effects of initial- and terminal-link duration on choice. We show that an expression for steady-state responding can be derived from the decision model, which enables a model for choice that provides an account of archival data that is equal or superior to the contextual choice model (Grace, 1994) and hyperbolic value-added model (Mazur, 2001) in terms of goodness of fit, parsimony, and parameter invariance. The success of the steady-state decision model validates the strategy of understanding acquisition phenomena as a bridge toward explaining choice at the molar level.     

Dual effects on choice of conditioned reinforcement frequency and conditioned reinforcement value

Pigeons were presented with a concurrent‐chains schedule in which the total time to primary reinforcement was equated for the two alternatives (VI 30 s VI 60 s vs. VI 60 s VI 30 s). In one set of conditions, the terminal links were signaled by the same stimulus, and in another set of conditions they were signaled by different stimuli. Choice was in favor of the shorter terminal link when the terminal links were differentially signaled but in favor of the shorter initial link (and longer terminal link) when the terminal links shared the same stimulus. Preference reversed regularly with reversals of the stimulus condition and was unrelated to the discrimination between the two terminal links during the nondifferential stimulus condition. The present results suggest that the relative value of the terminal‐link stimuli and the relative rate of conditioned reinforcer presentation are important influences on choice behavior, and that models of conditioned reinforcement need to include both factors.     

Assessing the merits and faults of holistic and disaggregated judgments

Three studies explored both the advantages of and subjects' preferences for a disaggregated judgment procedure and a holistic one. The task in our first two studies consisted of evaluating colleges; the third study asked participants to evaluate job applicants. Holistic ratings consisted of providing an overall evaluation while considering all of the characteristics of the evaluation objects; disaggregated ratings consisted of evaluating each cue independently. Participants also made paired comparisons of the evaluation objects. We constructed preference orders for the disaggregated method by aggregating these ratings (unweighted or weighted characteristics). To compare the holistic, disaggregated, and weighted‐disaggregated method we regressed the four cues on the participant's holistic rating, on the linearly aggregated disaggregated ratings, and on the average weighted disaggregated rating, using the participant's “importance points” for each cue as weights. Both types of combined disaggregated ratings related more closely to the cues in terms of proportion of variance accounted for in Experiments 1 and 2. In addition, the disaggregated ratings were more closely related to the paired‐comparison orderings, but Experiment 2 showed that this was true for a small set (10) but not a large set (60) of evaluation objects. Experiment 3 tested the “gamesmanship” hypothesis: People prefer holistic ratings because it is easier to incorporate illegitimate but appealing criteria into one's judgment. The results suggested that the disaggregated procedure generally produced sharper distinctions between the most relevant and least relevant cues. Participants in all three of these studies preferred the holistic ratings despite their statistical inferiority. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emotion and Consumption: Perspectives and Issues

Over the course of the last two decades, consumer research has been making considerable contributions to the study of affect. The articles in this volume deal with conceptual and methodological issues in affect research that bridge the gap between theory and practice and represent sample of the many research topics currently being explored by consumer researchers. In my remarks, I briefly discuss each article and I provide some directions for future research in each of the specific areas covered in the articles. Much research in affect is motivated by the desire to test and extend theory and resolve theoretical debates stemming from conflicting evidence. While the focus of affect research is increasingly on theory, we may not always be as careful about our constructs and methods and we need to apply additional, new and more precise methodologies to address old theoretical problems. I conclude that among the most important future tasks are the needs to adopt appropriate methods aimed at capturing affect's influence and underlying processes, and to refine the theoretical basis for such methods.     

I Was Pleased a Moment Ago: How Pleasure Varies with Background and Foreground Reference Points

The pleasure of an outcome is often evaluated relative to salient reference points. In the background, increasing sequences of positive outcomes are more enjoyable than decreasing sequences. In the foreground, outcomes that could have been worse are often more enjoyable than those that could have been better. How does pleasure vary when both background and foreground reference points are salient? Using a repeated gambling task in which participants make a choice, learn the outcome, watch their cumulative earnings change, and rate the pleasure of the outcome, we explore this question. Pleasure depends on background and foreground reference points, but the immediate events tend to dominate. The relatively narrow focus on the most recent reference points leads to myopic pleasure. We offer a modified version of decision affect theory to account for the results and explore the implications for consumer satisfaction.     

Binary choice under instructions to select versus reject

Two experiments examine differences in binary choice under select versus reject instructions. Three aspects of the choice process are examined: commitment to the chosen alternative, absolute magnitude of attribute evaluations, and information distortion during the choice process. Although the findings support previously hypothesized causes (Study 1), these results are reversed when the decision alternatives are uniformly negative (Study 2a). Accompanying verbal protocols (Study 2b) provide additional insights into the underlying decision process. The results consistently support a compatibility effect. Whenever there is a match between the valences of the alternatives and of the decision strategy, namely selecting a positive alternative or rejecting a negative one, there is greater accentuation of attribute differences, higher certainty in the final choice, and more information distortion. Metaphorically, the choice process seems to flow more smoothly in the compatible conditions.