An open system model of decision-making and temporal oscillations in preference strength
Contemporary theories of choice posit that decision making is a constructive process in which a decision maker uses information about the choice options to generate support for various decisions and judgments, then uses these decisions and judgments to reduce their uncertainty about their own preferences. Here we examine how these constructive processes unfold by tracking dynamic changes in preference strength. Across two experiments, we observed that mean preference strength oscillated over time and found that eliciting a choice strongly affected the pattern of oscillation. Preferences following choices oscillated between being stronger than those without prior choice (bolstering) and being weaker than those without choice (suppression). An open system model, merging epistemic uncertainty about how a person reacts to options and ontic uncertainty about how their preference is affected by choice, accounts for the oscillations resulting in both bolstering and suppression effects.