1 Centre for Decision Research, University of Leeds.
2 Department of Management, Aarhus University.
Psychol Sci. 2018 Jan;29(1):34-44. doi: 10.1177/0956797617733831. Epub 2017 Oct 25.
Ecological rationality results from matching decision strategies to appropriate environmental structures, but how does the matching happen? We propose that people learn the statistical structure of the environment through observation and use this learned structure to guide ecologically rational behavior. We tested this hypothesis in the context of organic foods. In Study 1, we found that products from healthful food categories are more likely to be organic than products from nonhealthful food categories. In Study 2, we found that consumers' perceptions of the healthfulness and prevalence of organic products in many food categories are accurate. Finally, in Study 3, we found that people perceive organic products as more healthful than nonorganic products when the statistical structure justifies this inference. Our findings suggest that people believe organic foods are more healthful than nonorganic foods and use an organic-food cue to guide their behavior because organic foods are, on average, 30% more healthful.
生态理性源于将决策策略与适当的环境结构相匹配，但这种匹配是如何发生的呢？我们提出，人们通过观察来学习环境的统计结构，并利用这种学习到的结构来指导生态理性行为。我们在有机食品的背景下检验了这一假设。在研究 1 中，我们发现来自健康食品类别的产品比来自非健康食品类别的产品更有可能是有机的。在研究 2 中，我们发现消费者对许多食品类别中有机产品的健康度和流行度的感知是准确的。最后，在研究 3 中，我们发现当统计结构证明这种推断是合理的时候，人们认为有机产品比非有机产品更健康。我们的研究结果表明，人们认为有机食品比非有机食品更健康，并利用有机食品这一线索来指导他们的行为，因为有机食品的健康度平均高出 30%。
