TY - JOUR
T1 - Binary choice under instructions to select versus reject
AU - Meloy, Margaret G.
AU - Russo, J. Edward
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank Kurt Carlson, Bill Ross, and Martijn Willemsen for their valuable comments. Portions of this work were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, Los Angeles, CA 1999. This work was supported by three grants, SES-00112039 from the National Science Foundation to both authors, NYC-121424 from the United States Department of Agriculture to the first author, and SBR-9730237 from the National Science Foundation to the second author.
PY - 2004/3
Y1 - 2004/3
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=1842479874&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=1842479874&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.obhdp.2003.12.002
DO - 10.1016/j.obhdp.2003.12.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:1842479874
SN - 0749-5978
VL - 93
SP - 114
EP - 128
JO - Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
JF - Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
IS - 2
ER -