Center for Social Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
PLoS One. 2019 Aug 14;14(8):e0220736. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220736. eCollection 2019.
When individuals are undecided between options, they may flip a coin or use other aids that produce random outcomes to support decision-making. Such aids lead to clear suggestions, which, interestingly, individuals do not necessarily follow. Instead when looking at the outcome, individuals sometimes appear to like or dislike the suggestion, and then decide according to this feeling. In this manuscript we argue that such a decision aid can function as a catalyst. As it points to one option over the other, individuals focus on obtaining this option and engage in a more vivid representation of the same. By imagining obtaining the option, feelings related to the option become stronger, which then drive feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the outcome of the decision aid. We provide support for this phenomenon throughout two studies. Study 1 indicates that using a catalyst leads to stronger feelings. Study 2 replicates this finding using a different catalyst, and rules out alternative explanations. Here, participants report that after having used a catalyst, they experienced a stronger feeling of suddenly knowing what they want compared to the control group that did not use a catalyst. Implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.
当个人在选项之间犹豫不决时，他们可能会抛硬币或使用其他产生随机结果的辅助工具来支持决策。这些辅助工具会产生明确的建议，但有趣的是，个人并不一定会遵循这些建议。相反，当看到结果时，个人有时似乎会喜欢或不喜欢这个建议，然后根据这种感觉做出决定。在本文中，我们认为这样的决策辅助工具可以起到催化剂的作用。因为它指向一个选项而不是另一个选项，所以个人会专注于获得这个选项，并对其进行更生动的描述。通过想象获得这个选项，与该选项相关的感觉会变得更强烈，然后就会对决策辅助工具的结果产生满意或不满意的感觉。我们通过两项研究为这一现象提供了支持。研究 1 表明，使用催化剂会产生更强烈的感觉。研究 2 使用了不同的催化剂重复了这一发现，并排除了其他解释。在这里，参与者报告说，在使用了催化剂之后，他们突然感觉自己知道自己想要什么，这种感觉比没有使用催化剂的对照组要强。讨论了这些结果对研究和实践的意义。
