Saïd Business School, Park End Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 1HP, United Kingdom.
Cognition. 2011 Jun;119(3):313-24. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.01.007. Epub 2011 Mar 12.
Individuals tend to select again alternatives about which they have positive impressions and to avoid alternatives about which they have negative impressions. Here we show how this sequential sampling feature of the information acquisition process leads to the emergence of an illusory correlation between estimates of the attributes of multi-attribute alternatives. The sign of the illusory correlation depends on how the decision maker combines estimates in making her sampling decisions. A positive illusory correlation emerges when evaluations are compensatory or disjunctive and a negative illusory correlation can emerge when evaluations are conjunctive. Our theory provides an alternative explanation for illusory correlations that does not rely on biased information processing nor selective attention to different pieces of information. It provides a new perspective on several well-established empirical phenomena such as the 'Halo' effect in personality perception, the relation between proximity and attitudes, and the in-group out-group bias in stereotype formation.
个体往往会再次选择他们有积极印象的选项，而避免选择他们有消极印象的选项。在这里，我们展示了信息获取过程中这种顺序抽样的特征如何导致对多属性选项属性的估计之间出现虚幻相关。虚幻相关的符号取决于决策者在做出抽样决策时如何组合估计值。当评估是补偿性或分离性时，会出现正的虚幻相关，而当评估是结合性时，会出现负的虚幻相关。我们的理论为虚幻相关提供了一种替代解释，它不依赖于有偏差的信息处理，也不依赖于对不同信息的选择性关注。它为几个已确立的经验现象提供了一个新的视角，例如人格感知中的“晕轮”效应、接近度与态度之间的关系，以及刻板印象形成中的内群体-外群体偏见。
