Concurrency Reliance Laboratory (Kono lab) Department of Information Engineering University of the Ryukyus
“HOW PEOPLE DECIDE”
I choose chapters which belong to section “HOW PEOPLE DECIDE”.
description in textbook
The way people decide to take an action is less straightforward than we think.
In this chapter we look at the science of how people make decisions.
Chapter List
90: PEOPLE MAKE MOST DECISIONS UNCONSCIOUSLY
91: THE UNCONSCIOUS KNOWS FIRST
92: PEOPLE WANT MORE CHOICES AND INFORMATION THAN THEY CAN PROCESS
93: PEOPLE THINK CHOICE EQUALS CONTROL
94: PEOPLE MAY CARE ABOUT TIME MORE THAN THEY CARE ABOUT MONEY
90: PEOPLE MAKE MOST DECISIONS UNCONSCIOUSLY
You’re thinking of buying a TV.
What factors are involved in this decision-making process?
For example, size of TV, best time to buy, the brand, and more.
You’ve considered all those factors consciously, but research on decision making shows that your actual decisions is made primarily in an unconscious way.
90: PEOPLE MAKE MOST DECISIONS UNCONSCIOUSLY
Unconscious decision making includes factors such as
What other people are deciding to buy. (e.g. review in web site)
What is consistent with your persona.
Whether you can pay off any obligations or social debts with this purchase.
Fear of loss.
Your particular drives, motivations, and fears.
90: PEOPLE MAKE MOST DECISIONS UNCONSCIOUSLY
Most of mental processing is unconscious, and most of our decision making is unconscious, but that doesn’t mean it’s fatly, irrational, or bad.
We’re faced with an overwhelming amount of data and our conscious minds can’t process all of it.
We create rules and guidelines of thumb unconsciously for skipping consider all data.
91: THE UNCONSCIOUS KNOWS FIRST
Author introduces research on unconscious mental processing was conducted by Antonie Bechara(1997) and his team.
Each persons received $2000 of pretend money.
They were told that the goal was to lose as little of the $2000, and to try to make as much over the $2000.
Participants in the study played a gambling game with four decks of cards.
91: THE UNCONSCIOUS KNOWS FIRST
rule of gambling game
If they turned over any card in decks A or B, they earned $100.
If they turned over any card in decks C and D, they earned $50.
Some cards in decks A and B also required participants to pay the experimenter a lot of money, sometimes as much as $1,250.
Some cards in decks C and D also required participants to pay the experimenter, but the amount they had to pay was only an average of $100.
91: THE UNCONSCIOUS KNOWS FIRST
feature of gambling game
Over the course of the game, decks A and B produced net losses if participants continued using them.
Continued use of decks C and D rewarded participants with net gains.
91: THE UNCONSCIOUS KNOWS FIRST
result of gambling game
Most participants started by trying all four decks.
At first, they gravitated toward decks A and B because those decks paid out $100 per turn.
But after about 30 turns, most turned to decks C and D.
They then continued turning cards in decks C and D until the game ended.
It means participants learned decks A and B is “dangerous”.
91: THE UNCONSCIOUS KNOWS FIRST
The researcher measure participants’ skin conductance response (SCR).
The participants’ SCR readings were elevated when they played decks A and B long before they consciously realized that A and B were dangerous.
Their SCRs increased before they touched using decks A and B.
The unconscious knew that decks A and B were “dangerous” and resulted in a loss.
This was evidenced by the spike in the SCR. However, that’s all unconscious.
92: PEOPLE WANT MORE CHOICES AND INFORMATION THAN THEY CAN PROCESS
Iyengar and Mark Lepper (2000) decided to test the theory that people who have too many choices will not choose at all.
They set up booths at a busy upscale grocery store and posed as store employees.
They alternated the selection on the table.
Half of the time there were six choices of fruit jam for people to try and the other half of the time there were twenty-four jars of jam.
92: PEOPLE WANT MORE CHOICES AND INFORMATION THAN THEY CAN PROCESS
Which table had more visitors?
When there were twenty-four jars of jam, 60 percent of the people coming by would stop and taste.
When there were six jars of jam only 40 percent of the people would stop and taste.
92: people want more choices and information than they can process
Which table resulted in more tasting?
You might think that people would taste more jam when the table had twenty-four varieties. But they didn’t.
People stopped at the table, but they only tasted a few varieties whether there were six or twenty-four choices available.
92: people want more choices and information than they can process
Which table resulted in more purchases?
The most interesting part of Iyengar’s study is that 31 percent of the people who stopped at the table with six jars actually made a purchase.
But only 3 percent of the people who stopped at the table with twenty-four jars actually made a purchase.
93: PEOPLE THINK CHOICE EQUALS CONTROL
In The Art of Choosing (2010), Sheena Iyengar describes an experiment with rats.
The rats were given a choice of a direct path to food, or a path that had branches and there- fore required choices to be made.
Both paths resulted in access to the same food in the same amounts.
If all the rats wanted was food, then they should take the short, direct path.
But the rats continuously preferred the path with branches.
93: PEOPLE THINK CHOICE EQUALS CONTROL
In experiments with monkeys and pigeons, the animals learn to press buttons to get food.
If given a choice between one button and multiple buttons, both monkeys and pigeons prefer multiple buttons.
93: PEOPLE THINK CHOICE EQUALS CONTROL
In similar research with humans, people were given chips to use at a casino.
They could use the chips at a table that had one roulette wheel, or at a table where they could choose from two roulette wheels.
People preferred the table with two wheels, even though all three wheels were identical.
93: PEOPLE THINK CHOICE EQUALS CONTROL
Even though it isn’t necessarily true, people equate having choices with having control.
If people are to feel in control, then they need to feel that their actions are powerful and that they have choices to make.
Sometimes having many choices makes it harder to get what they want, but they still want the choices so that they feel in control of the decision.
94: PEOPLE MAY CARE ABOUT TIME MORE THAN THEY CARE ABOUT MONEY
Say you’re out for a Sunday bike ride on your favorite path, and you come across some kids selling lemonade.
Do you stop and buy lemonade? Do you like the lemonade?
Does your buying or liking the lemonade have anything to do with the wording on the sign next to the lemonade stand? Apparently so.
94: PEOPLE MAY CARE ABOUT TIME MORE THAN THEY CARE ABOUT MONEY
Cassie Mogilner and Jennifer Aaker (2009) from the Stanford Graduate School of Business conducted a series of experiments to see whether references to time or references to money would affect whether people stopped to buy, how much they were willing to pay, and how satisfied they were with the products they bought.
They conducted five experiments.
94: PEOPLE MAY CARE ABOUT TIME MORE THAN THEY CARE ABOUT MONEY
Sometimes there was a sign that said
“Spend a little time, and enjoy C & D’s lemonade. (time condition).
“Spend a little money, and enjoy C & D’s lemonade” (money condition)
“Enjoy C & D’s lemonade” (control condition).
94: PEOPLE MAY CARE ABOUT TIME MORE THAN THEY CARE ABOUT MONEY
A total of 391 people passed by either on foot or on bikes.
Those who stopped to purchase lemonade ranged in age from 14 to 50, and there was a mix of gender and occupations.
Customers could pay anywhere between $1 and $3 for a cup of lemonade the customer decided on the price.
94: PEOPLE MAY CARE ABOUT TIME MORE THAN THEY CARE ABOUT MONEY
More people stopped to buy lemonade when the sign mentioned time (14 percent).
In fact, twice as many people stopped when time was mentioned than when money was mentioned (7 percent).
94: PEOPLE MAY CARE ABOUT TIME MORE THAN THEY CARE ABOUT MONEY
In addition, customers in the time condition paid more money for the lemonade ($2.50 on average) compared to the money condition ($1.38 on average).
Interestingly, the control condition was in between on both the number of people stopping to purchase and the average price.
94: PEOPLE MAY CARE ABOUT TIME MORE THAN THEY CARE ABOUT MONEY
At the end of all the experiments, the researchers concluded that people are more willing to buy, spend more money, and like their purchases better if there’s a personal connection.
In most cases, that personal connection is triggered by references to time instead of money.