| Abstract: | In Study I, the self-ideal discrepancy in risk taking was found to be unrelated to the strength of values relevant to the risks under consideration, and the other-self discrepancy was found to be related to these values only by virtue of one of its components, inital preference. Hence the use of these discrepancies as measures of value strength must be questioned. This casts doubt on some of the evidence formerly thought to support the assumption that values provide the force that drives the choice shift. In Study II, two hypotheses derived from this assumption were not supported. In light of this result, and closely related negative findings from two other studies, it would appear that this assumption must either be discarded or revised. Some possible lines of revision are suggested. Some of the results were also prejudicial to two theories about the mechanism through which values or other forces allegedly produce the shift: norm-comparison theory and pluralistic-ignorance theory. |
