Speed-accuracy tradeoffs in decision making: Perception shifts and goal activation bias decision thresholds

A fundamental aspect of decision making is the speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT): slower decisions tend to be more accurate, but since time is a scarce resource people prefer to conclude decisions more quickly. The current research adds to the SAT literature by documenting two previously unrecognized influences on the SAT: perception shifts and goal activation. Decision makers' perceptions of what constitutes a fast or a slow decision, and what constitutes an accurate or inaccurate decision, are based on prior experience, and these perceptions influence decision speed. Similarly, previous experience in a decision context associates the context with a particular decision goal. Thus, in later decisions the decision context will activate this goal, and thereby influence decision speed. Both of these mechanisms contribute to a specific decision bias: decision speeds are biased toward original decision speeds in a decision context. Four experiments provide evidence for the bias and the two contributing mechanisms.

Guilt and the Consumption of Products with an Unhealthy Image

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of nutrition labeling on consumers’ guilt when they consumed products with an unhealthy image. The first investigation was conducted to examine direct effect according to the types of nutrition labeling (adding healthy ingredients/reducing unhealthy ingredients) by independent samples t-test. The findings show that consumers felt less guilty when the number of unhealthy ingredients was reduced, compared to when healthy ingredients were added. The second investigation tested the effects of goal activation types (utilitarian/hedonic) and nutrition labeling on consumers’ guilt by independent samples t-test and ANOVA. Goal activation was added as an independent variable, and hypothetical scenarios and stimulants were used. The experiment was designed with a focus on goal activation (utilitarian/hedonic) × nutrition labeling (adding healthy ingredient/reducing unhealthy ingredient). The findings reveal that the utilitarian goal activation group felt less guilty about the products with the reduction in the number of unhealthy ingredients than the products with the addition of healthy ingredients. The hedonic goal activation group felt less guilty about the products with the addition of positive nutrients compared to the products with the reduction in the number of negative nutrients. The third investigation tested consumer guilt in situations that create anxiety about food by independent samples t-test and ANOVA, based on Study 2. Unlike in Study 2, there was no interaction effect between product-nutrition labelling and goal activation. These results suggest that, when consumer anxiety increases, in relation to unhealthy foods that already invoke guilt and anxiety, the motivation—namely, goal activation when consuming food—plays a main role in causing anxiety, regardless of nutrition. Based on these experimental results, the investigator discussed the academic and practical implications of the present study. Finally, a couple of proposals were made for the direction of future study.

The Psychology of Getting Busy: Multitasking as a Consequence of Goal Activation

With the constantly increasing popularity of human multitasking, it is crucial to know why do people engage in simultaneous task performance or switch between unfinished tasks. In the present paper, we propose that multitasking behavior occurs when people have multiple active goals, the greater their number, the greater the degree of multitasking. The number of currently considered goals is reduced where one goal’s significance overrides the others, reducing the degree of multitasking. We tested these hypotheses in a series of six studies in which we manipulated either goal activation or goal importance and investigated how this affected the degree of multitasking. The results showed that the more active goals participants actively entertained, the more likely they were to plan to engage in multitasking (Study 1 & 5), and the more often they switched between tasks (Study 2). They also multitasked more under high interruption condition assumed to activate more goals than low interruption condition (Study 3). Further, we demonstrated that the degree of multitasking was significantly decreased by reducing the number of simultaneously considered goals, either via increasing the relative importance of one of the goals (Study 4) or via inducing greater commitment to one of the goals through a mental contrasting procedure (Study 5). Study 6, carried out in an academic context, additionally showed that the importance of a class-related goal negatively predicted media multitasking in class. The results thus show that goal activation is the underlying mechanism that explains why people multitask.

Crying Wolf or Ever Vigilant: Do Wide-Ranging Product Warnings Increase or Decrease Sensitivity to Other Product Warnings?

Product safety warnings are pervasive in the marketplace. The frequency and, in some cases, content of such warnings has led some to speculate that the cumulative effects may undermine the efficacy of warnings in general—including that of different warnings for other products. According to the generalized desensitization hypothesis, numerous past warnings can cause consumers to react less strongly to safety warnings for other products subsequently encountered. In contrast, the literature on goal activation and compensatory consumer behavior suggests that any self-protective goals aroused by initial warnings can potentially generalize to increase awareness and safety precautions in other warning contexts, consistent with the generalized sensitization hypothesis. The authors tested both hypotheses by manipulating the number and strength of an initial set of product warnings and examining whether such exposure generalized to different product warnings. In support of the generalized sensitization prediction, prior warnings motivated appreciation of the risks communicated in a different warning context and increased relevant safety behaviors. These generalized sensitization effects were moderated by self-affirmation, supporting the prediction that they are driven by self-protective goals.

Morning Reattachment to Work and Work Engagement During the Day: A Look at Day-Level Mediators

Reattachment to work (i.e., rebuilding a mental connection to work) before actually starting work is important for work engagement during the day. Building on motivated action theory, this study examines anticipated task focus, positive affect, and job resources (job control and social support) as mediators that translate reattachment in the morning into work engagement during the day. We collected daily-survey data from 151 employees (total of 620 days) and analyzed these data with a multilevel path model. We found that day-level reattachment to work in the morning predicted anticipated task focus, positive affect, social support, and job control through goal activation and that anticipated task focus, positive affect, social support, and job control predicted work engagement during the day. This study points to the important role of reattachment to work in employee experiences and behaviors throughout the workday and specifically highlights the benefits of such initial mental boundary crossing between life domains for employee engagement at work.

Nonconscious Nudges: Encouraging Sustained Goal Pursuit

A person can use a variety of strategies to sustain the pursuit of a conscious goal (e.g., deliberate on the goal, monitor goal progress, increase goal commitment). However, less is known about how to sustain the pursuit of a nonconscious goal, a reality that is reflected in the common finding that nonconscious goal pursuit typically persists for only one choice episode. This research investigates two factors that help sustain the pursuit of a nonconscious goal: increasing the level of goal activation prior to goal pursuit and limiting the extent of goal deactivation after a goal-consistent behavior. When one of these two factors is present, nonconscious goal pursuit is sustained, as evidenced by a longer sequence of goal-consistent choices. Five studies compare and contrast strategies for sustaining conscious and nonconscious goal pursuit and provide insight into how the goal system manages the pursuit of a nonconscious goal. In addition, the findings inform when a consumer is more or less likely to pursue opposing goals across sequential choices (e.g., being virtuous after being indulgent).