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Boundary conditions on unconscious thought in complex decision making.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Payne, JW; Samper, A; Bettman, JR; Luce, MF
Published in: Psychological science
November 2008

Should individuals delegate thinking about complex choice problems to the unconscious? We tested two boundary conditions on this suggestion. First, we found that in a decision environment similar to those studied previously, self-paced conscious thought and unconscious thought had similar advantages over conscious thought constrained to a long fixed time interval in terms of identifying the option with the highest number of positive outcomes. Second, we found that self-paced conscious thought performed better than unconscious thought in a second decision environment where performance depended to a greater extent on magnitudes of the attributes. Thus, we argue that it is critical to take into account the interaction of forms of processing with task demands (choice environments) when considering how to approach complex choice problems.

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Published In

Psychological science

DOI

EISSN

1467-9280

ISSN

0956-7976

Publication Date

November 2008

Volume

19

Issue

11

Start / End Page

1118 / 1123

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Unconscious, Psychology
  • Thinking
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Decision Making
  • Choice Behavior
 

Citation

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Payne, J. W., Samper, A., Bettman, J. R., & Luce, M. F. (2008). Boundary conditions on unconscious thought in complex decision making. Psychological Science, 19(11), 1118–1123. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02212.x
Payne, John W., Adriana Samper, James R. Bettman, and Mary Frances Luce. “Boundary conditions on unconscious thought in complex decision making.Psychological Science 19, no. 11 (November 2008): 1118–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02212.x.
Payne JW, Samper A, Bettman JR, Luce MF. Boundary conditions on unconscious thought in complex decision making. Psychological science. 2008 Nov;19(11):1118–23.
Payne, John W., et al. “Boundary conditions on unconscious thought in complex decision making.Psychological Science, vol. 19, no. 11, Nov. 2008, pp. 1118–23. Epmc, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02212.x.
Payne JW, Samper A, Bettman JR, Luce MF. Boundary conditions on unconscious thought in complex decision making. Psychological science. 2008 Nov;19(11):1118–1123.
Journal cover image

Published In

Psychological science

DOI

EISSN

1467-9280

ISSN

0956-7976

Publication Date

November 2008

Volume

19

Issue

11

Start / End Page

1118 / 1123

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Unconscious, Psychology
  • Thinking
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Decision Making
  • Choice Behavior