Silver Alex M, Stahl Aimee E, Loiotile Rita, Smith-Flores Alexis S, Feigenson Lisa
Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh.
Department of Psychology, The College of New Jersey.
Psychol Sci. 2020 Nov;31(11):1422-1429. doi: 10.1177/0956797620954491. Epub 2020 Oct 2.
The question of how people's preferences are shaped by their choices has generated decades of research. In a classic example, work on cognitive dissonance has found that observers who must choose between two equally attractive options subsequently avoid the unchosen option, suggesting that not choosing the item led them to like it less. However, almost all of the research on such choice-induced preference focuses on adults, leaving open the question of how much experience is necessary for its emergence. Here, we examined the developmental roots of this phenomenon in preverbal infants ( = 189). In a series of seven experiments using a free-choice paradigm, we found that infants experienced choice-induced preference change similar to adults'. Infants' choice patterns reflected genuine preference change and not attraction to novelty or inherent attitudes toward the options. Hence, choice shapes preferences-even without extensive experience making decisions and without a well-developed self-concept.
人们的偏好如何受到其选择的影响这一问题已经引发了数十年的研究。在一个经典例子中，关于认知失调的研究发现，必须在两个同样有吸引力的选项之间做出选择的观察者随后会避开未被选择的选项，这表明不选择该物品会导致他们对其的喜爱程度降低。然而，几乎所有关于这种选择诱导偏好的研究都集中在成年人身上，这就留下了一个问题，即这种现象的出现需要多少经验。在这里，我们研究了前语言期婴儿（N = 189）中这种现象的发展根源。在一系列使用自由选择范式的七个实验中，我们发现婴儿经历了与成年人相似的选择诱导偏好变化。婴儿的选择模式反映了真正的偏好变化，而不是对新奇事物的吸引力或对选项的固有态度。因此，即使没有广泛的决策经验和没有完善的自我概念，选择也会塑造偏好。
