Post-decision Consolidation and Distortion of Facts

Ola Svenson ； Ilkka Salo ； Torun Lindholm

《Judgment and Decision Making》 4卷5期 (2009/08) Pp. 397-407

並列摘要

Participants decided whom of two patients to prioritize for surgery in three studies. The factual quantitative information about the patients (e.g., probability of surviving surgery) was given in vignette form with case descriptions on Visual Analogue Scales-VAS's. Differentiation and Consolidation theory predicts that not only the attractiveness of facts but also the mental representations of objective facts themselves will be restructured in post-decision processes in support of a decision (Svenson, 2003). After the decision, participants were asked to reproduce the objective facts about the patients. The results showed that distortions of objective facts were used to consolidate a prior decision. The consolidation process relied on facts initially favoring the non-chosen alternative and on facts rated as less, rather than more important.

並列關鍵字

cognitive psychology ； decision making ； medical decisions ； coherence ； differentiation and consolidation