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Observed Variability and Values Matter: Toward a Better Understanding of Information Search and Decisions from Experience
Author(s) -
Mehlhorn Katja,
BenAsher Noam,
Dutt Varun,
Gonzalez Cleotilde
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of behavioral decision making
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0771
pISSN - 0894-3257
DOI - 10.1002/bdm.1809
Subject(s) - choice set , affect (linguistics) , task (project management) , set (abstract data type) , selection (genetic algorithm) , purchasing , value (mathematics) , key (lock) , computer science , economics , cognitive psychology , psychology , econometrics , machine learning , operations management , computer security , management , communication , programming language
The search for different options before making a consequential choice is a central aspect of many important decisions, such as mate selection or purchasing a house. Despite its importance, surprisingly little is known about how search and choice are affected by the observed and objective properties of the decision problem. Here, we analyze the effects of two key properties in a binary choice task: the options' observed and objective values, and the variability of payoffs. First, in a large public data set of a binary choice task, we investigate how the observed value and variability relate to decision‐makers' efforts and preferences during search. Furthermore, we test how these properties influence the chance of correctly identifying the objectively maximizing option, and how they affect choice. Second, we designed a novel experiment to systematically analyze the role of the objective difference between the options. We find that a larger objective difference between options increases the chance for correctly identifying the maximizing option, but it does not affect behavior during search and choice. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.