Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Consumer judgment and decision making'
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Laporte, Sandra. "Essays on consumer judgment and decision making under uncertaingy." Jouy-en Josas, HEC, 2010. https://pastel.archives-ouvertes.fr/pastel-00604896.
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La thèse étudie, dans des situations concrètes caractérisées par l’incertitude, plusieurs facteurs qui influencent les jugements de probabilités et les décisions. Les deux premiers essais portent sur la décision de participer à une loterie dont le nombre de participants est inconnu. La décision n’est pas influencée par le nombre de prix, c’est-à-dire le nombre de gagnants qui seront récompensés (Essai 1), alors qu’elle l’est par la similarité avec les gagnants précédents, un facteur logiquement non pertinent (Essai 2). L’insensibilité des consommateurs au nombre de prix découle de l’effet combiné de la faible évaluabilité de cet attribut et de la prise de décision sans estimation de probabilité. La similarité avec les gagnants précédents augmente l’intention de participer en raison du biais de « Hot Hand » interpersonnelle : les consommateurs pensent que leurs chances de gagner le prochain tirage sont plus élevées quand ils sont semblables aux gagnants précédents que quand ils sont dissemblables. L’essai final montre comment le fait de regretter une décision avant que ses conséquences soient connues peut conduire à être optimiste sur ces conséquences, pourvu que l’importance de cette décision pour la personne reste limitéeThe dissertation studies several factors that impact likelihood judgments and decisions in concrete situations characterized by uncertainty. The first two essays study the entry decision in a lottery where the number of participants is unknown. This decision is not affected by the number of prizes, i. E. By the number of winners to be rewarded (Essay 1), whereas it is influenced by the similarity with the previous winners, a logically irrelevant factor (Essay 2). Consumers’ insensitivity to the number of prizes is driven by the combined effect of the low evaluability of this attribute and decision making without likelihood judgment. Similarity with the previous winners increases participation intention because of the Interpersonal Hot Hand Fallacy: consumers believe their chances of winning the next random drawing are higher when they are similar to the lucky previous winners than when they are dissimilar. The final essay shows that, when regretting a recent decision before its consequences are known, people tend to be optimistic about these consequences, provided that the self-significance of the decision is limited
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Hartzler, Beth Marie. "Decoy Effects in a Consumer Search Task." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1332887766.
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Armstrong, Soule Catherine. "Anchors, Norms and Dual Processes: Exploring Decision Making in Pay-What-You-Want Pricing Contexts." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18328.
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The dissertation explores factors influencing consumers' payments in anonymous Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) pricing contexts. Consumers often pay more than zero when given the opportunity to self-determine payments. However, most PWYW research has focused on contexts where the possibility of social influence from a salesperson or clerk is present. I suggest that in anonymous exchange contexts where social pressure does not exist, consumers will nevertheless make voluntary payments greater than zero.
The present research explores PWYW in anonymous purchase contexts. Results from eight studies indicate that PWYW payment amounts are affected by heuristics and biases. In Essay 1, the influence of reference price on PWYW payments is explored. Firm-provided external reference prices (ERPs) framed as injunctive norms (e.g., suggested price) and descriptive norms (e.g., average payment) caused anchoring effects on voluntary payments such that those with higher ERPs reported higher payments. Further, ERPs framed as descriptive (vs. injunctive) norms were more predictive of payment amounts, but only when the ERP is high.
Recalling internal reference price information is more effortful than simply reacting to a firm-provided price. The possibility that decreased cognitive processing results in higher payments, violating the concept of self-interest primacy, is explored in Essay 2. Four studies manipulate processing styles and demonstrate that when consumers use more effortful cognitive processing, they tend to make lower PWYW payments. These results suggest that consumers are likely to rely on a normal price heuristic when using more superficial processing.
The dissertation demonstrates the importance of reference price information and cognitive processing styles when voluntary anonymous payments are made anonymously. PWYW decisions are influenced by the exchange context and how the information is cognitively processed. At a theoretical level, the findings demonstrate that consumers make voluntary payments in the absence of social pressure and that those payments can be predictably influenced by features in the exchange setting. Finally, the research suggests that consumers who exert less cognitive effort in PWYW situations make higher payments. It therefore appears that the first instinct is not to act self-interestedly by making little or no payments, but rather payments seem to be guided by heuristic-based decision making.2016-09-29
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Jacklin, Rosamond. "Judgment and decision making in surgery." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/4378.
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This PhD thesis addresses the question of how we define, measure and improve surgical judgment and decision making, and how junior surgeons may be trained in these skills. The introduction to the thesis outlines the importance of surgical decision making, and the rationale for undertaking this research. An overview of relevant cognitive psychology research is presented, and the methodologies used in the experimental chapters of the thesis are described in detail. The introduction concludes with a systematic review of published empirical work on surgical decision making. The first two empirical studies are qualitative in nature, using interviews and simulation. They address how we define surgical decisions and their relationship to the process of care, including how surgeons subjectively view their own decision making, and whether we can draw inferences from observation of the process in action. Subsequent experimental chapters focus on the measurement of the quality of judgments of risk - a pre-decisional process in which likely outcomes of surgery are evaluated and estimated. Judgment analysis methodology is used to measure surgeons' performance at estimating surgical risks, with evaluation of whether the method shows construct validity, and whether feedback derived from judgment analysis tasks can be used as a teaching tool. The final empirical section of the thesis develops the theme of training junior surgeons in understanding risk and becoming better decision-makers. The process of developing, piloting, implementing and evaluating of a course module aiming to improve surgical trainees' approaches to decision making is presented. Finally the discussion reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of the studies, and outlines the implications of the work for clinical practice, training of junior surgeons, and future research.
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Fleischhut, Nadine. "Moral judgment and decision making under uncertainty." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät II, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/16820.
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Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht, wie Menschen Urteile und Entscheidungen in moralischen Situationen unter Unsicherheit treffen. In theoretischer Hinsicht wird Verhalten in moralischen Situationen aus der Perspektive begrenzter und ökologischer Rationalität analysiert, die das Zusammenspiel zwischen Kognition und der Struktur der Umwelt betont. Empirisch ist das Ziel, moralische Urteile und Verhalten unter epistemischen Bedingungen zu untersuchen, denen Menschen in der realen Welt begegnen. Das erste Projekt diskutiert aus der Perspektive ökologischer Rationalität wie das Zusammenspiel von Heuristiken und Umwelt hilft, moralisches Verhalten zu verstehen, das inkonsistent erscheint, solange es durch Charaktereigenschaften erklärt wird. Aus dieser Perspektive ist es entscheidend, soziale Umwelten zu untersuchen, da Urteile und Verhalten in moralischen Situationen oft nicht durch speziell moralische Regeln sondern durch moralisch neutrale, soziale Heuristiken entstehen können, die den Zusammenhalt sozialer Gruppen fördern. Das zweite Projekt untersucht empirisch Entscheidungen in sozialen Dilemmata. Die Kernfrage ist, wie Kooperation durch den Risikograd geprägt wird, sowie durch die Art, wie Risikoinformationen erworben werden (durch Beschreibung oder Erfahrung), im Vergleich zu nicht-sozialen Situationen mit gleichem Risiko. Kooperation variierte systematisch mit dem Risikograd, aber wie Informationen erworben wurden war nur in den nicht-sozialen Situationen relevant. Prozessdaten und Teilnehmerberichte legen nahe, dass diese Diskrepanz auf Entscheidungsprozessen beruhen könnte, in denen Erwartungen über das Verhaltens anderer sowie die Höhe der Verdienste wichtiger sind als deren Wahrscheinlichkeit. Das dritte Projekt vergleicht Urteile in moralischen Dilemmata, in denen der Verlauf der Ereignisse noch ungewiss ist (Vorschau), mit Situationen, in denen bereits sicher ist, ob negative Nebeneffekte auftreten oder nicht (Rückschau). Die Ergebnisse zeigen einen Rückschaufehler in moralischen Urteilen sowie bei der Wahrscheinlichkeitseinschätzung der Nebeneffekte. Der Unterschied zwischen moralischen Urteilen unter Sicherheit und Unsicherheit wirft die Frage auf, inwieweit sich empirische Ergebnisse generalisieren lassen, die auf den üblicherweise untersuchten moralischen Dilemmata basieren, wie z.B. den „Trolley“-Fällen, in denen alles mit Sicherheit feststeht.In this dissertation I investigate how people make judgments and decisions in moral situations under uncertainty. Theoretically, behavior in moral situations is analyzed from the perspective of bounded and ecological rationality, which emphasizes the interplay between cognition and the structure of the environment. Empirically, the goal is to investigate moral judgment and behavior under epistemic conditions people encounter in the real world. The first project discusses from the perspective of ecological rationality how the interaction of heuristics and the environment helps explaining moral behavior that appears inconsistent from accounts referring to characteristics of the individual. This view also emphasizes the importance of studying social environments, as judgment and behavior in moral situations under uncertainty may often not result from specifically moral rules but instead from morally neutral social heuristics which serve the coherence of social groups. The second project empirically examines decisions in social dilemmas. The key question was how cooperation is shaped by different levels of risk and by the way information about risk is acquired (from description or from experience), compared to nonsocial situations with equivalent risks. Cooperation systematically varied with different levels of risk, yet the way in which information was acquired only mattered in nonsocial situations. Process data and self-reports indicated that this discrepancy may have resulted from decision processes that are more sensitive to expectations about others’ behavior and the size of rewards than to reward probabilities. The third project compared judgments in moral dilemmas when the course of events is still uncertain (foresight) with situations when it was already certain whether negative side-effects did or did not occur (hindsight). Results showed a hindsight effect for moral judgments, as well as for probability estimates of negative side-effects. As moral judgments differed under certainty and uncertainty, this raises concerns about generalizing empirical results from commonly investigated moral dilemmas, such as the “trolley” cases, in which everything is certain.
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Moulton, Bruce David Computer Science & Engineering Faculty of Engineering UNSW. "Methods for training people's decision-making judgment: a review." Awarded By:University of New South Wales. Computer Science & Engineering, 2008. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/41431.
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The subject of enquiry is the variation seen in the results of a specific set of studies about methods for training peoples judgment. This review attempts to synthesise the studies findings, and tests hypotheses about the causes of the variation. Research questions ask if variation is attributable to differences in participant characteristics, different aspects of judgment having been targeted, different tasks having been performed or different training strategies having been used. Relevant literature was reviewed, and studies that reported a method for training an aspect of judgment were selected for further quantitative analysis if at least two groups had been randomly selected from a larger set of human adults, one of which received training that another did not, and where, during the test phase, members of no group had access to tools or resources, performed tasks, or received feedback which members of another group did not. A meta-analysis of statistical data from 39 published studies was conducted. The findings are interpreted as indicating variation in the effect of training is attributable to differences in task type and differences in training strategy. The effect of training is greatest in the studies that have diagnostic tasks (p<0.05). The studies that trained participants with examples have, on average, greater effect sizes than studies that did not (p<0.05). Implications, limitations, and avenues for further research are discussed. It is concluded that the findings indicate that different tasks and different training strategies account for a significant proportion of the variation in training effect seen between the selected studies.
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Nordfält, Jens. "Is consumer decision-making out of control? : non-conscious influences on consumer decision-making for fast moving consumer goods." Doctoral thesis, Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, Centrum för Konsumentmarknadsföring (CCM), 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hhs:diva-520.
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Most literature on consumer decision-making concentrate on which attributes a certain brand evokes, how a brand is evaluated, or how well a brand can stand the competition of another brand. This is a bit funny since one of the most obvious aspects of decision-making for fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) is that most products are never considered. Recalling a typical trip to a grocery store one probably realizes that most of the products simply were given no conscious attention. Chances are that a consumer notices less than 1% (of the perhaps close to 10.000 items in a regular grocery store) enough to consider if the item is of any interest. Therefore, in the present thesis the focus is on the influences that enhance, inhibit, or affect the processing of brands, brand associations, ads, or decision criteria, prior to reaching the level of conscious decision-making. These influences are regarded as non-conscious filters, making consumer decision-making as simple and flexible as required by many situations. The filters allow consumers to notice what they search for or what they normally pay attention to, and to ignore complex, disturbing, or unfamiliar stimuli. The thesis consists of an introduction chapter and five articles. The introduction chapter provides a comprehensive picture of the common theme of the articles, namely non-conscious influences on decision-making. The articles cover non-conscious influences during each of the five steps commonly included in the consumer decision-making process. Examples of questions that are elaborated on are: Which criteria influence the degree to which people behave habitually versus respond to marketing stimuli? What is influencing the choice of decision strategy? For example, what influences people to be more loyal versus more deal prone? And what makes people learn something new from an ad instead of just rehearsing what they already new? One aim of the present thesis is to answer questions like the ones stated above. Furthermore, it is argued that these influences are active at a stage before what could be defined as full conscious control.Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2005 S. 1-112: sammanfattning, s. 113-228, [5] s.: 5 uppsater
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Nordfält, Jens. "Is consumer decision-making out of control ? : non-conscious influences on consumer decision-making for fast moving consumer goods /." Stockholm : Economic Research Institute, Stockholm School of Economics (EFI), 2005. http://web.hhs.se/efi/summary/673.htm.
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Paul, Mhorag E. "Social judgment and risky decision making in Huntington's disease." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/26839.
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Huntington's Disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder, associated with problems in judgement and decision-making. The extent of these problems, and their association with clinical characteristics has however, only recently been assessed (Stout, Rodawalt, Siemers, 2001). Parallels are often drawn between the behavioural disturbances in Huntington's disease and those observed with damage to the frontal lobes. Indeed an anatomical basis for these similarities does exit because of the connectivity of the basal ganglia and the frontal cortex, within several frontal subcortical circuits (Cummings, 1993). In view of these identified similarities, this study aimed to examine decision-making deficits in individuals with Huntington's disease and asymptomatic disease gene carriers using a laboratory-based simulated gambling task. This task has been used to quantify similar decision-making deficits in ventromedial frontal lobe damaged participants (Bechara, et al., 1994). Judgement deficits were assessed using a theory of mind test, examining the ability to recognise a faux-pas. This test has been used to assess deficits in individuals with damage to the orbito-frontal cortex (Stone, Baron-Cohen, & Knight, 1998). For this study, 14 symptomatic, 10 asymptomatic, and 13 controls completed the simulated gambling task, the faux-pas task, and a neuropsychological test battery. It was hypothesised that both symptomatic and asymptomatic Huntington's disease participants would demonstrate deficits in comparison to controls on the gambling task and the faux-pas task. Results are discussed with reference to previous research findings.
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Greifeneder, Rainer. "Reliance on accessibility experiences in judgment and decision making /." Lengerich ; Berlin Bremen Miami Riga Viernheim Wien Zagreb : Pabst, 2007. http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=2975450&prov=M&dok_var=1&dok_ext=htm.
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Rousseau, Alan P. "Exploring Judgment and Decision Making Behaviors among Alpine Climbers." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1305657238.
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Longart, Pedro. "Consumer decision making in restaurant selection." Thesis, Bucks New University, 2015. http://bucks.collections.crest.ac.uk/9388/.
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The aim of this study was to investigate consumers’ decision of selecting a restaurant for leisure. It was based on research carried out in the South East of the UK. In line with the cognitive paradigm the importance of attributes was approached from the theoretical perspective of utility theory in which consumers pursue maximisation of benefits from the service which they are evaluating. This study follows a sequential mixed methods approach. It consists of a qualitative stage followed by a quantitative stage, each one adhering to the precepts of their own paradigms. The qualitative stage was based on data collected through six focus groups of four to six respondents. An interview guide was used in semi-structured settings and data was analysed using applied thematic analysis. The second stage employed an online survey generating quantitative data from 376 respondents. The theme of ‘eating out occasion’, such as a romantic dinner, was a key element of the decision-making process. This thesis presents a framework for examining the different stages of the decision using the stylised Engels, Kollat and Blackwell (EKB) model (Tuan-Phan and Higgins, 2005). Its stages delve into the influence of emotions, motivations and the consumer’s regulatory focus in the decision. The methodological design with the possibility of selecting attributes, emerging from the qualitative stage, offers a contribution to the use of conjoint analysis for complex decisions. The study also proposes a new typology of restaurant attributes, with seven categories influencing perceived consumer value. The study’s findings further indicate that price is a factor influencing the expectations from the other attributes. The study considers a number of implications for the industry, such as, the importance of service and consumers’ willingness to pay more for a service that is friendly, welcoming and attentive. It also suggests many areas for further research.
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Youmans, Robert J. "The restoration of diluted judgment /." Electronic thesis, 2003. http://etd.wfu.edu/theses/available/etd-05132003-134031/.
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Abbas, Mustafa Sulaiman. "Consistency Analysis for Judgment Quantification in Hierarchical Decision Model." PDXScholar, 2016. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2699.
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The objective of this research is to establish consistency thresholds linked to alpha (α) levels for HDM’s (Hierarchical Decision Model) judgment quantification method. Measuring consistency in order to control it is a crucial and inseparable part of any AHP/HDM experiment. The researchers on the subject recommend establishing thresholds that are statistically based on hypothesis testing, and are linked to the number of decision variables and (α) level. Such thresholds provide the means with which to evaluate the soundness and validity of an AHP/HDM decision. The linkage of thresholds to (α) levels allows the decision makers to set an appropriate inconsistency tolerance compatible with the situation at hand. The measurements of judgments are unreliable in the absence of an inconsistency measure that includes acceptable limits. All of this is essential to the credibility of the entire decision making process and hence is extremely useful for practitioners and researchers alike. This research includes distribution fitting for the inconsistencies. It is a valuable and interesting part of the research results and adds usefulness, practicality and insight. The superb fits obtained give confidence that all the statistical inferences based on the fitted distributions accurately reflect the HDM’s inconsistency measure.
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Krisandersson, Patric, and Johan Hulthin. "The complexity of the audit process: : Judgment and decision making." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-180174.
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This paper explains what recognition the auditor has of theoretical judgment and decision making subjects surrounding the audit process. The auditors’ judgment and decision making skills seem to be more challenged when it comes to estimating their clients’ valuations. Therefore, the audit process of fair value measures (FVM) is used to charterer the recognition more clearly. Attention to this topic is warranted for several reasons. First, FVM was implemented on the Swedish market in 2005 and is relatively recent to Swedish auditors. Second, to our knowledge no similar study, regarding the Swedish audit firms, has been conducted within this area. Third, the evidence, drawn from previous research, of what recognition the auditors have of the theoretical judgment and decision making subjects seem to be more indirect than direct and we also extend the previous research. We find, through semi-structured interviews with employees of the ‘Big four’, that both judgment and decision making are acknowledged as possible issues. However, we also find that certain areas within these two categories are unrecognized to be of immediate concern.
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Myers, Patricia McGarry. "The effect of explanation source and type on auditors' judgment performance." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/187206.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of others' explanations for unexpected test results on auditors' judgments of the likelihood that the explanation is correct. Auditors may inherit explanations from various sources. Two primary sources of such explanations are the auditee (client) and a fellow auditor. Two basic types of explanations are error and non-error. Without gathering additional information, auditors cannot know whether a particular unexpected difference is caused by an error (misstatement) or non-error (no misstatement). A between-subjects design is employed to examine how different combinations of source and type of explanation influence auditors' likelihood assessments. This study utilizes an audit scenario wherein subjects inherit an explanation for an unexpected test result. The explanation is attributed to either a fellow auditor or to an auditee. The explanation specifies either an error cause or a non-error cause for the unexpected test result. The description of each source is identical with respect to competency. However, professional skepticism suggests that subjects will attribute varying reliability to the two sources. The two explanations, although different in type, are equally plausible (as determined by a separate of group of subjects who responded to a plausibility survey). Experimental results provide evidence that type of explanation has a significant effect on participants' judgment performance in the form of their assessments of the likelihood of the inherited explanation. Explanations specifying a non-error cause were judged as more likely than explanations specifying an error cause. However, contrary to predictions, the source of the explanation did not affect participants' likelihood assessments. Findings of this study suggest that auditors are more likely to begin with a non-error explanation for an unexpected difference than an error explanation and that the source of an inherited explanation does not have a strong effect on auditors' selection of an initial preferred hypothesis.
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Zheng, Jiwei. "Experiments on consumer preferences and decision making." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2014. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/52072/.
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Consumers are not as rational as assumed by conventional economic theories. The present thesis reports three studies of consumers’ bounded rationality. It has three chapters. In Chapter 1, I investigate the effects of a range of different types of anchor on WTP and WTA valuations of familiar consumer products, elicited through individuals’ buying or selling decisions at given prices. I find anchoring effects only when the anchor value is framed as a plausible price for the good for which the individual is a potential buyer or seller. Anchoring effects are stronger for WTA than for WTP. I conclude that anchoring effects can affect market behaviour, but that not all anchors are equally effective. In Chapter 2, I demonstrate a set of three experiments and find that consumers are likely to stick to defaults and achieve suboptimal outcomes. I unpack two key psychological reasons why they do this - complexity (in terms of non-linearity, number and bundling of tariffs) and consumer inattention. The complexity induced by product bundling, non-linearity and number of tariffs has an important role, but this is overstated if the explanatory power of inattention is neglected. I show that a ‘smart nudge’ policy of automatically switching default tariffs can be used to exploit inattention-based consumer inertia to achieve better consumer outcomes. In Chapter 3, I report an experiment in which participants faced purchasing decisions involving complexity and common standards. The majority of participants employed the "dominance editing" (DE) heuristic. However, for cognitively constrained participants, the DE heuristic is less efficient than an alternative shortlisting heuristic - the "largest common standard" (LCS).
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Garcia, Rodriguez Santiago. "Visualization and numeracy in consumer decision making." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2016. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/12684/.
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This thesis investigates the relationship between the cognitive style of visualization, composed of an Object and a Spatial component, and its effects on numeracy and numerical decision-making contexts. Extant research points to spatial visualization skills aiding numerical performance. However, the findings are not conclusive and only refer to spatial visualization as a skill, not as a cognitive style. The role of object visualization on numerical skills and numerical decision-making contexts has been ignored altogether by previous research. This work aims to fill these gaps in the literature. Firstly, the relationship between Object and Spatial visualization as parts of a cognitive style was investigated, with all performed studies consistently supporting the idea that these are two independent mental constructs. The study of the relationship between numeracy and visualization revealed that, while higher Object visualization predicts lower scores in a numeracy test (Abbreviated Numeracy Scale, ANS), higher Spatial visualization predicts greater numerical ability in the same test. This result proved to be consistent across all the experiments in this study. Having established the relationship between the ANS and visualization, this study extended the investigation to other numerical and graphical scenarios which resemble tasks that could be found in natural scenarios. The results showed that spatial visualization predicts better performance in numerical and graphical tasks beyond the ANS. This thesis then extended the investigation to see whether the biases Peter et al. (2006) and Weller et al. (2012), which were found to be affected by Numeracy, were also similarly affected by visualization, therefore widening the potential impact of visualization on the field of Decision-Making. The results indicated that in a task with a normatively correct answer, spatial visualization predicted better performance, whereas numeracy or object visualization did not have this effect. In the tasks where only judgments of preference or attractiveness were elicited, neither numeracy nor visualization predicted preferences or attractiveness. Finally, this study investigated whether the cognitive style of visualization had an effect on individuals’ weighing information consistent with their cognitive style more heavily. In a task where participants saw information in the form of tables or graphs, accompanied by a human figure, it was found that neither spatial or object visualization preference seemed to influence the weighing of object or spatial information. Overall, this thesis demonstrates the relationship between numeracy and visualization style, and is the first investigation demonstrating how visualization cognitive style is related to numeracy and how a person’s visualization cognitive style affects Decision-Making tasks. The close relationship found between Spatial visualization and Numeracy, with Spatial visualization in some cases predicting results where Numeracy failed to show a differential effect, also opens the door to further consideration of the use and creation of Spatial visualization measures to be used instead of Numeracy scales in the numerical decision-making contexts.
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Lee, JinKook. "Utility functions and decision rules: Implications for consumer decision-making /." The Ohio State University, 1993. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487848078451032.
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Minsk, Brian. "An approach to training judgement to improve performance in a real-time, dynamic decision-making task." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/24364.
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Newall, Philip W. S. "Household financial decision making." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/24473.
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Households are nowadays required to make financial decisions of increasing complexity in an increasing number of domains. This thesis explores psychological mechanisms, behavior change interventions, and potential inhibitory factors underlying wise household financial decisions in the domains of gambling advertising and mutual fund investing. In-depth investigations of these two domains were chosen to balance the depth of topic coverage versus the wide breadth of modern financial decision making. UK soccer gambling advertising was investigated via two observational studies and a range of online experiments. The experiments found that soccer fans struggle to form coherent expectations for the complex bets featuring in UK soccer gambling advertising. Mutual fund investors have to balance a number of cues in their investment choices. Normatively, mutual fund investors should minimize fees. However, a number of investors choose to maximize past returns instead. Three chapters investigate how mutual fund fees and financial percentage returns are psychologically processed, in order to uncover beneficial behavior change interventions. Many participants processed percentages additively, rather than follow the correct multiplicative strategy. Both percentages and corresponding “small” currency amounts were associated with systematic biases. Participant responses were closest to the normative strategy when either past returns were framed as a “small” currency amount, or when fees were framed as a 10 year currency amount. “Some people invest based on past performance, but funds with low fees have the highest future results” was the most effective disclaimer at nudging fee-sensitivity against the real world status quo, “Past performance does not predict future results.”
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Hong, Ilyoo Barry. "Computerized group decision support for managerial choice/judgment tasks through facilitated preference formulation and utilization." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/184752.
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In modern organizations where managers must constantly be dealing with an overload of information, it is often observed that participants in group decision processes either are not clearly aware of their specific preferences or that they are not capable of properly formulating those preferences. When this happens, inconsistent or incomplete expression of personal preferences and their use in decision making may lead to an unjustifiable outcome for the group. Due to this problem, the strengths and effectiveness of GDSS-supported group meetings may, in some situations, not be apparent. This dissertation develops a new approach to supporting group decision making, focusing on preference knowledge of individual participants in a group. A system architecture for the design of an MCDM (Multiple Criteria Decision Making) GDSS which facilitates the process of eliciting, formulating, utilizing, aggregating, and analyzing preferences for individuals within groups is presented. The architecture integrates multi-criteria decision making paradigms with a group decision support environment. A prototype has been developed in order to demonstrate the design feasibility of an architecture that centers around four phases of choice making: alternative generation, preference specification, alternative evaluation, and preference aggregation. The prototype is designed to support managerial choice and judgment processes in collaborative meetings. The intended problem domain of the model is semi-structured managerial decisions for which decision variables (attributes) can be represented in quantitative terms to some extent, yet for which evaluation of alternatives requires a high degree of intuition and personal analysis. The process of prototyping the proposed architecture and the results from a qualitative study have provided some instructive conclusions relating to MCDM GDSS design: (1) support for human choice strategies can be integrated into a GDSS, (2) appropriate management of preferences of group participants will facilitate collaborative decision processes, (3) hierarchical decomposition of a decision problem can provide structure to a problem and thereby reduce problem complexity, and (4) managerial decisions are appropriate problems to which the current approach can be applied.
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Woiczyk, Thomas Karl Alfred. "Categories and levels of aggregation: essays on judgment and decision making." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/669922.
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In this thesis I explore how people form and are affected by judgments about
objects, people, and categories. In particular, I show how the implications are
affected by the level of aggregation; both for human judgment and the analysis
of the same. Chapter one presents my analysis of how people form evaluative
judgments about categories based on their experiences with category members.
Chapter two presents computational and experimental evidence on how generalization
within and across categories affects choice in an exploitation/exploration
setting. Chapter three quantifies the temporal stability of social preferences in
group contexts at the individual and aggregate level.En esta tesis exploro cómo las personas se forman y se ven afectadas por los juicios sobre objetos, personas y categorías. En este contexto, muestro cómo las implicaciones se ven afectadas por el nivel de agregación; tanto para el juicio humano como para el análisis del mismo. El capítulo uno presenta mi análisis de cómo las personas forman juicios evaluativos sobre categorías basadas en sus experiencias con los miembros de la categoría. El capítulo dos presenta evidencia computacional y experimental sobre cómo la generalización dentro y entre las categorías afecta la elección en un entorno de explotación / exploración. El capítulo tres cuantifica la estabilidad temporal de las preferencias sociales en contextos grupales a nivel individual y agregado.
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Andersson, Patric. "Expertise in credit granting : studies on judgment and decision-making behavior." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm : Economic Research Institute, Stockholm School of Economics (Ekonomiska forskningsinstitutet vid Handelshögsk.) (EFI), 2001. http://www.hhs.se/efi/summary/557.htm.
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Martindale, Amanda Beverley. "Developing professional judgment and decision making expertise in applied sport psychology." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/8053.
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Establishing and enhancing standards of practice is important in any profession, and particularly so in a new and emerging domain such as sport psychology. Accordingly, this thesis draws on literature from teaching, medicine, and parallel disciplines such as clinical and counselling psychology to propose a Professional Judgment and Decision Making (PJDM) approach to the evaluation, reflective practice, and training of applied sport psychologists. Methods and mechanisms already utilised in these more established professions are considered alongside empirical data, generated from long-term programmes of sport psychology consultancy, as potential means to further enhance the performance of professionals in this developing field. As such, the thesis highlights gaps in current process, proposes an original conceptualisation of practice, and illustrates the possible outcomes and implications of this PJDM approach. In addition, the emergent PJDM principles are illustrated in practice through a reflection-in-action case study, and trained and evaluated in novice applied sport psychology practitioners as a basis for the effective development of PJDM expertise.
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Cole, Melissa. "A hermeneutic investigation of online consumer decision making." Thesis, Brunel University, 2005. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5168.
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This is a multidisciplinary information systems thesis with a strong sociological focus. Theoretically it uses the technical concerns of human-computer interaction as the background to consider the separate theories of consumer decision-making and the diffusion of innovations. Emphasis is placed on understanding how consumers make sense of the Internet and come to define the role and use of the Internet in their lives. A practical framework for hermeneutic investigation was created to access the unreflective thoughts and actions driving online consumer decision-making. Implicit within hermeneutics is the prospect of transcendental interpretations and the ability to investigate in situ new avenues of research that emerge as a result of anomalous comments or findings. Hence, this thesis presents two different, but inter-related, research inquiries and their associated findings. Initial interest was centred on consumer behaviour and interface design. Specifically, can a dedicated 'consumer interface' be designed using principles based on consumer perceptions of online convenience. The resulting data analysis created a framework of advice that interface designers can use to improve their understanding of the nature and limitations of convenient interfaces and associated consumer decision-support technologies. A second research theme emerged from the data analysis which broadened the focus into a consideration of online consumer behaviour as a distinct issue. Specifically, a new from of interactive behaviour prevalent in electronic retail markets was identified and, following a second literature review, labeled "surrogacy". Related in form to the personal shoppers found in traditional marketplaces, surrogacy differs from electronic intermediaries with regard to (i) the motivations of use and (ii) the symbolic and functional benefits of usage. The emergence of this phenomenon suggests that interactions between individuals (as consumers) and Web-based systems are maturing, albeit in a non-predictable manner. Together, the methodological refinements presented here with the accompanying research findings provide a reference point for further work in the following three areas: interface design for electronic marketplaces; Web-based consumer decision support technologies; and the development of interpretive approaches suitable for socio-technical investigations.
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Nelson, Kim Allen. "Consumer decision-making and image theory: Understanding the socially responsible consumer." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/186868.
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Many consumers are now considering the effects of general corporate behavior (e.g., political views, charitable contributions, environmental disasters) and of the product's manufacture, consumption or disposal (e.g., animal testing, ecological harm) on society's overall well-being. These situations involve the issue of individual social responsibility and are good examples of complex decisions that are not readily explained by traditional decision theories. Abstract attributes (e.g., product "greenness" or lack of harm to the environment) and the active role of the decision maker's values, principles, and ethics are problematic. The primary purpose of this research is to develop a conceptual framework for consumer decision making in the presence of a social responsibility issue. The secondary purpose of the study is to assess the value of image theory for explaining the decision process. Image theory (Beach and Mitchell 1987; Beach 1990), a relatively recent development in decision making, provides a compatible decision framework for these types of decisions due to its emphasis on an individual's values and on the screening of alternatives using value-laden attributes. Survey methodology and consumer preference tasks are utilized, and the hypothesized models are tested by structural equation modeling. The findings suggest that image theory provides a credible explanation of socially responsible consumer choice. In terms of this study's context, a consumer who has a strongly held social responsibility principle, values a clean environment, has a high level of environmental concern, and believes that his/her actions make a difference, is more likely to be committed to a pro-environmental plan of action and to use certain decision processes. These specific processes are screening alternatives to eliminate those that are not environmentally friendly and weighting the greenness attribute heavily in evaluating options. Using image theory's terminology and structure, social responsibility and environmental value form the value image. Environmental concern and perceived consumer effectiveness form the trajectory image. The strategic image is reflected in the plan (commitment to pro-environmental behaviors) and tactics (using the social responsibility attribute in the decision process). This research demonstrates that enduring values and principles guide consumer behavior involving social responsibility issues.
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White, Lee. "The constructive influence of affect on judgement and decision making." Thesis, Swansea University, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.678397.
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Ermann, Erica. "Consumer decision-making and the consumption of information." Connect to resource, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1811/32199.
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Matherly, James Edward III. "Observer interpretation of signaling in consumer decision making." Thesis, University of Maryland, College Park, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3587355.
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This dissertation includes two essays exploring the effects of observers' interpretation of signaling behavior by others on the inferences and decision making of the observers. The first essay investigates how observers make inferences about other people's brand attachment. We propose that observers use the proximity of branded objects to the physical being of the user and the costs incurred to acquire the object to determine the degree of self-extension of the object—that is, to what extent it represents a part of the person's self-concept. Through two studies, we show that to the extent that an object is seen as self-extensive, the user would be inferred to be engaging in self-expression, attempting to convey aspects of their personality to others by using the object. These beliefs about self-expression then lead observers to infer that the individual is attached to the brand.
In the second essay, we consider how a brand's advertising appeals should be affected by its market position. Building on an experimental study, we present a duopoly model of brand advertising copy decisions, where consumer motives are influenced by Quality-based and Image-based advertising appeals. We show that each brand's decision to select one type of advertising appeal over the other is a function of its market position. We find that larger brands will use Quality-based appeals while smaller brand will use Image-based appeals. We empirically test these findings by examining advertising decisions for major brands found in a popular newsmagazine. Consistent with the model, we find that larger market share brands use Quality-based advertising appeals to a greater extent, while smaller brands use more Image-based appeals. Further, we find that brands that deviate from the predictions of the model are less profitable. Our results suggest that marketing managers should consider their position in the market when crafting advertising appeals, with larger brands emphasizing product quality in their appeals and smaller brands emphasizing the fit of their products with consumers' self-image.
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Khaddaria, Raman. "Perceptions and their role in consumer decision-making." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4951.
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Particular interest lies in understanding how variants of a metric - namely, a survey question - have been employed in academic studies and industry-surveys, in order to measure smoking-related risk-perceptions. In the process of reviewing select tobacco-industry survey records, we analyze the implications of different features of this metric, (e.g., use of a 'probe', the 'Don't Know' option), and various interview modes (e.g. telephonic, face-to-face), for the estimates of perceived risk arrived at in these studies. The review makes clear that two aspects of health risks from smoking--the risk of contracting a smoking-related disease, as against the risk of prematurely dying from it conditional upon getting affected--have not been jointly explored so far. The dataset obtained from the Family Heart Disease and Prevention Survey (November 2010-March 2011), provides a unique opportunity to explore these two kinds of probabilities, particularly with regard to the risks of lung-cancer from smoking. Chapter 3 concludes by illustrating how individuals evaluate both these aspects of health-risks. While the probability of getting lung-cancer is found to be overestimated in conjunction with previous studies, the conditional probability of premature death is severely underestimated. Additionally, it is found that individuals' subjective assessments of either of these risk aspects predict smoking behavior in an identical manner. This calls into question the so-called 'rationality' of smoking decisions with implications for policies designed for the control of tobacco consumption.; This dissertation is an empirical investigation into the roles that different quantifiable and measurable perceptions play in defining individual behavior across a variety of decision-making contexts. In particular, the focus lies on smokers and the choices they make with regard to smoking and beyond. Chapter 1 analyzes a nationally representative sample of adults (23 years and older) in the United States, pertaining to the Annenberg Perception of Tobacco Risk Survey II (1999-2000). It is observed that three dimensions to smoking behavior viz., risk, temporality and addiction, interact to determine the smoking status of an individual. Although previous studies mostly looked into each of these dimensions in isolation, in this chapter, we empirically illustrate how perceptions on risk, time dimensions and addiction, jointly influence the smoking behavior of adults. Chapter 2 casts the smoker in the role of a parent and explores parental behavior towards the general health-risks facing their children. Using the dataset from a survey (2009), conducted in Orlando, Florida, on parents, having at least one child aged between 1 and 16 years, the chapter arrives at two findings relevant for policy: i) In each of the 'smoker' and 'non-smoker' parent categories, parents exhibit equal concern for themselves and their children, and ii) the level of concern shown by smoker-parents, towards health-risks faced by their children, is the same as that shown by their non-smoking counterparts. The analysis in this chapter also affirms the need to incorporate subjective risk assessment in willingness-to-pay (WTP) exercises to facilitate a deeper behavioral analysis of health risk valuation. Lastly, in Chapter 3, we focus on the issue of quantitative assessment of the perception of health risks from smoking.ID: 030422682; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-127).
Ph.D.
Doctorate
Economics
Business Administration
Economics
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Shao, Wei, and n/a. "Consumer Decision-Making: An Empirical Exploration of Multi-Phased Decision Processes." Griffith University. Griffith Business School, 2007. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20070725.144459.
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Over the past 50 years, a great deal of research has conceptualised and modelled consumer decision-making as a single-or two-stage decision process. Today, the decision complexity has increased and consumers need to filter out a large amount of information prior to the final choice decision. This poses a challenge for marketing modellers to develop decision models that are more representative of real-world decision-making. An important rationale for the present study is to improve our understanding of consumer decision-making by providing empirical evidence that consumer decision-making may go beyond a single-or two-stage structure. This thesis aims to provide an insightful view of consumer decision-making, which may help marketers to develop and reinforce marketing programs to address consumer needs and hence increase profits, with knowledge of the types of decisions made and how decisions are made at different stages of the decision process. The literature review identified single-and two-stage decision models. Data analysis did not fully support this conceptualisation. An empirical exploration of consumer decision-making for a durable product revealed that the existing literature is limited in scope and predictability as they failed to capture multi-phase decision processes, which accounted for approximately one-half of consumer decisions. Empirical evidence was found suggesting that consumers seldom use a single strategy throughout the decision process. Consumer heterogeneity was also evident in this research as different consumers approached the same decision task with different processes and outcomes. Finally, this research identified those aspects of decision processes that have not been captured by the literature-based decision strategies. This research suggests that consumer decisions are more contingent than previously conceived in a single-and two-stage model. This research recommends that marketers should reconsider their understanding of consumer decision-making and bear in mind that one marketing strategy does not fit all customers. Marketers need to develop marketing strategies to address the entire decision process instead of focusing only on the decision outcome. By identifying different decision paths that are used by consumers, marketers can effectively segment the market; marketers can also benchmark consumers' perceptions of their performance on the important attributes against competitors to ensure that their product/brand is not eliminated prior to the selection from within the choice set. Future research requires us to understand how consumer differences interact with the decision environment to influence decision processes and outcomes. To do so, researchers must adopt a multi-phase perspective.
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Powel, Wayne Douglas. "Influence of the amount and relevance of information on the speed and confidence of the response." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/184675.
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Confidence in a belief is a feeling about the probability of the correctness of the belief. Research has shown that subjects tend to be overconfident in the correctness of their beliefs when that confidence is measured against the actual probability of the belief being correct. Further research has indicated the importance of the amount, relevance, and source of background information on the degree of confidence expressed in a belief. Phillips and Wright (1977) have proposed a three stage model for how confidence in a belief is evaluated and transformed into a confidence response. This research examined how the amount and relevance of information pertaining to a belief influenced the subject's confidence in the belief, and the plausibility of the Phillips and Wright confidence response model. Subjects were presented information about a hypothetical individual and were asked to indicate true or false that the profiled individual was from a particular occupation group, and their confidence in their true/false response. Profile information varied from high to low relevance for the occupation decision, and in the amount of information presented. Subject response times were measured, once the profile had been read and removed, from the presentation of the occupation statement to the subjects true/false response. Subjects indicated greatest confidence when the maximum amount of highly relevant information was presented. Further, information relevance alone produced a significant change in confidence, while the amount of information did not. The prediction of the Phillips and Wright model of greatest response times with subject expressions of moderate confidence was not supported. Instead, subjects responded most quickly when most confident and slowest when least confident. Information relevance was negatively related to response time while the amount of information was positively related to response time.
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Van, Geen Alexandra Vivien. "Essays in Experimental Economics and the Improvement of Judgment and Decision Making." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11688.
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This dissertation presents essays on the relationship between judgment and de- cision making and public policy, with a focus on gender diversity. The gender difference in career advancement is the likely result both of decisions made on the supply side (i.e. female and male job candidates) as well as decisions on the demand side (i.e. evaluators). These essays explore the behavioral foundations of decision making processes on both sides, and also make recommendations on how to use these behavioral insights to improve decisions, as well as increase gender diversity.
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Shan, Yixing. "Decision making study : methods and applications of evidential reasoning and judgment analysis." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2015. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/17330.
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Decision making study has been the multi-disciplinary research involving operations researchers, management scientists, statisticians, mathematical psychologists and economists as well as others. This study aims to investigate the theory and methodology of decision making research and apply them to different contexts in real cases. The study has reviewed the literature of Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), Evidential Reasoning (ER) approach, Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) movement, Social Judgment Theory (SJT), and Adaptive Toolbox (AT) program. On the basis of these literatures, two methods, Evidence-based Trade-Off (EBTO) and Judgment Analysis with Heuristic Modelling (JA-HM), have been proposed and developed to accomplish decision making problems under different conditions. In the EBTO method, we propose a novel framework to aid people s decision making under uncertainty and imprecise goal. Under the framework, the imprecise goal is objectively modelled through an analytical structure, and is independent of the task requirement; the task requirement is specified by the trade-off strategy among criteria of the analytical structure through an importance weighting process, and is subject to the requirement change of a particular decision making task; the evidence available, that could contribute to the evaluation of general performance of the decision alternatives, are formulated with belief structures which are capable of capturing various format of uncertainties that arise from the absence of data, incomplete information and subjective judgments. The EBTO method was further applied in a case study of Soldier system decision making. The application has demonstrated that EBTO, as a tool, is able to provide a holistic analysis regarding the requirements of Soldier missions, the physical conditions of Soldiers, and the capability of their equipment and weapon systems, which is critical in domain. By drawing the cross-disciplinary literature from NDM and AT, the JA-HM extended the traditional Judgment Analysis (JA) method, through a number of novel methodological procedures, to account for the unique features of decision making tasks under extreme time pressure and dynamic shifting situations. These novel methodological procedures include, the notion of decision point to deconstruct the dynamic shifting situations in a way that decision problem could be identified and formulated; the classification of routine and non-routine problems, and associated data alignment process to enable meaningful decision data analysis across different decision makers (DMs); the notion of composite cue to account for the DMs iterative process of information perception and comprehension in dynamic task environment; the application of computational models of heuristics to account for the time constraints and process dynamics of DMs decision making process; and the application of cross-validation process to enable the methodological principle of competitive testing of decision models. The JA-HM was further applied in a case study of fire emergency decision making. The application has been the first behavioural test of the validity of the computational models of heuristics, in predicting the DMs decision making during fire emergency response. It has also been the first behavioural test of the validity of the non-compensatory heuristics in predicting the DMs decisions on ranking task. The findings identified extend the literature of AT and NDM, and have implications for the fire emergency decision making.
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Naidoo, Mineshree. "Ethical decision-making amongst HR employees within a retails organisation." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2009. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_5574_1297921236.
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The aim of this research was to examine whether a significant relationship exists between ethical decision-making had an impact on HR employees within a retail organisation. The questionnaire for the South African Board for People Practices, and the Ethical Position Questionnaire was administered to a sample of 150 employees in a large retail organisation within the Western Cape &ndash
South Africa. The researcher used a non-probability sampling technique specifically, a convenience sampling approach. The results of this study indicate that there is a statistically significant correlation between moral awareness and decision-making amongst HR employees. However with regards to gender there seems to be no statistical significant relationship amongst HR employees and ethical decision-making. Similarly results also indicated that there was no significant relationship between ethical ideology and ethical decision-making. Notwithstanding the limited generalisability of this study, implications for research and practice are suggested and recommendations are made to facilitate improved functioning.
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Lee, Leonard Whee-Chuen Lee-Loon Lee. "Money, beer, and toys : essays on consumer decision making." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37252.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2006.Includes bibliographical references.
Essay 1: Shopping Goals, Goal Concreteness, and Conditional Promotions. We propose a two-stage model to describe the increasing concreteness of consumers' goals during the shopping process, testing the model through a series of field experiments at a convenience store. Using a number of different process measures (experiment 1), we first established that consumers are less certain of their shopping goals and construe products in less concrete terms when they are in the first (vs. second) stage of the shopping process. The results of experiments 2 and 3 next demonstrate that goal-evoking marketing promotions (e.g. conditional coupons) are more effective in influencing consumers' spending when consumers' goals are less concrete. Essay 2: Try It, You'll Like It: The Influence of Expectation, Consumption, and Revelation on Preferences for Beer. Patrons of a pub evaluated regular beer and "MIT brew" (the same regular beer with some balsamic vinegar) in one of three conditions. One group tasted them blind (the secret ingredient was never disclosed). A second group was informed of the contents before tasting. A third group learned of the secret ingredient immediately after tasting, but prior to indicating their preference.
(cont.) Not surprisingly, preference for the MIT brew was higher in the blind condition than either of the two disclosure conditions. However, the timing of the information mattered substantially. Disclosure of the secret ingredient significantly reduced preference only in the before condition, when it preceded tasting, suggesting that disclosure affected preferences by influencing the experience itself, rather than by acting as an independent negative input or by modifying one's retrospective interpretation of the experience. Essay 3: In Search of Homo Economicus: Preference Consistency, Emotions, and Cognition. Understanding the roles of emotion and cognition in forming preferences is critical in helping firms choose effective marketing strategies and consumers make appropriate consumption decisions. In this work, we investigate the role of the emotional and cognitive systems in preference consistency (transitivity). Participants were asked to make a set of binary choices under conditions that were aimed to tap emotional versus cognitive decision processes.
(cont.) The results of three experiments consistently indicate that automatic affective responses are associated with higher levels of preference transitivity than deliberate cognitive considerations, and suggest that the basis of this central aspect of rational behavior-transitivity-lies in the limbic system rather than the cortical system.
by Leonard Whee-Chun Lee-Loon Lee.
Ph.D.
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Daniel, Robert S. "Disciplined intuition subjective aspects of judgment and decision making in Child Protective Services /." Diss., Texas A&M University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1969/160.
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Kehl, Dieter. "Decision-making and social media : the integration of social media technologies into collective judgment and decision-making processes in organizational business environments." Thesis, University of Gloucestershire, 2017. http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/5987/.
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Organizations are continuously confronted with decision-making in their daily business practice. Information technology plays a key role, supporting and automating decision-making processes, enabling the flow and distribution of information and knowledge and enhancing collaboration and exchange across the entire organization. Both, decision-making and information technology combine social and technological aspects of collaboration and collective action within a socio-economic system. Social media technologies such as corporate social networks, collaborative projects, instant messengers, content sharing platforms, blogs, micro-blogs, rating and voting systems, influence how human beings collaborate, build communities, exchange information, and jointly create content. This thesis combines aspects of social and behavioural science, collective decision-making and information technology into a qualitative research project. The main objective of this thesis was to explore and to gain a deep understanding of the implications of the integration of social media technologies to enhance collective judgement and the complex decision-making processes within corporate and less formal contexts. Therefore, this research identified real, potential and perceived benefits, disadvantages and barriers of social media integration in collective decision-making processes. The outcome focusses on evidence to establish whether social media technologies are capable of advancing the collective decision-making process. This study applied an exploratory qualitative research approach, which incorporated semi-structured interviews, multiple case studies and documentary data. Three case studies built the foundation of the field research conducted over a period of nine months, resulting in thirty semi-structured interviews. For each investigated site, ten individuals from various departments and different roles participated in thirty to forty minutes, semi-structured interviews recorded at their premises. Documents shared by the interviewees such as internal presentations, videos, meeting minutes and communication notes added to the overall data set. The key findings can be divided into three focus areas, (a) social media within a business environment and organizational readiness, (b) social media and collective action in business such as mass collaboration and problem solving and (c) social media integrated in collective decision-making derived from the benefits, disadvantages and barriers identified. Real benefits surfaced in the area of communication, interaction, involvement, reproducibility, aggregation and the independence of physical presence. From a communication perspective, the decision-making process benefits from utilizing different channels to convey and present information. These communication channels facilitate synchronous and asynchronous interaction, engaging different parties such as stakeholders, committees, experts, management and other participants in the process. Since the information created is continuously captured and stored, social media adds the benefit of reproducibility to the collective decision-making process. Rating and voting functions aggregate thoughts, opinions, and monitor, at an early stage of the process, tendencies and reflective developments in the group. Finally, rating and voting mechanisms build a collective choice acknowledged by a majority of a business collective. Social media relieves the requirement of physical presence in a collective decision-making process utilizing the corporate Intranet and the Internet. This adds flexibility to the selection of the participants and provides a basis of employee engagement from small to large-scale endeavours. Potential benefits relate to some extent to the explored real benefits. They focus on motivation of social interaction and collaboration, building relationships, enhancing the flow of information and fostering a reflective culture capable of collectively solving problems. From an organizational behaviour perspective, these benefits are capable of stimulating employees to engage in organizational topics, and utilizing organizational intelligence by sharing knowledge and experience to support collective decision-making. Perceived benefits include enhanced communication, interaction, involvement, and acceptance, variety of opinions, engaging employees in collective actions and integrating experts. Perceived disadvantages concentrated around social interaction. They manifested as distraction, losing focus on objectives, biased information, and loss of control, opinion manipulation, information overload and a less formal nature of the process. Barriers were identified in the area of abuse of personal information, additional workload in the daily business, unclear benefits, refusal to share knowledge, lack of trust about the information created and presented, manipulation of opinions, and continuous availability. The results of the thesis provided the evidence that utilization and integration of social media in the collective decision-making process depend on organizational readiness, which relates to the context. Social media application differs from the application in the Internet since social conformity, cohesion and internal competition influence participation and outcome. This means, the ability to integrate employees in collective action and the utilization of social media requires, besides acceptance of the new technology, a culture of openness, and willingness to share, engage and contribute. Therefore, this research suggests, from a managerial perspective, focussing on collective action capabilities, utilizing social media as an enabler to connect employees, to stimulate interaction, participation, and capture and support the information flow during a decision-making process. Recommendations for future research suggest analysing organizations in longitudinal studies to explore how they gain advantage of collective action concerning aggregation of knowledge using social media as a platform.
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Hudspeth, Christophe Sage. "The role of trust in judgment." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2009. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0003077.
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Tong, Yuk-yue. "Information organization and storage : the role of implicit theories /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1998. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B20715572.
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Topp, Lisa Dawn. "An evaluation of eyewitness decision making strategies for simultaneous and sequential lineups." To access this resource online via ProQuest Dissertations and Theses @ UTEP, 2008. http://0-proquest.umi.com.lib.utep.edu/login?COPT=REJTPTU0YmImSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=2515.
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Nilsson, Jonas. "Consumer decision making in a complex environment : Examining the decision making process of socially responsible mutual fund investors." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Handelshögskolan vid Umeå universitet, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-35607.
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During the last few decades, "regular people" have become increasingly involved with investing in the stock market. One way of doing this, which has become more and more popular, is to invest in mutual funds. The mutual fund industry has, due to its explosive growth, been described as a success story of the 20th century. These days, sources report that over 70% of the Swedish population actively invests in mutual funds. This thesis is an investigation into consumer decision making regarding one specific type of mutual fund: Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). SRI profiled mutual funds are different from "regular" mutual funds in that they incorporate social, ethical, and environmental (SEE) criteria. In this manner, SRI profiled mutual funds could be said to have two separate dimensions. The regular financial dimension has the purpose of generating a high level of financial return while managing risk. The socially responsible dimension, on the other hand, focuses on incorporating SEE issues into the investment process. However, consumers that desire to choose mutual funds that will both perform well financially and have a good socially responsible dimension face a more difficult decision than consumers who choose to invest in "regular" mutual funds. As each of the dimensions come with its own set of challenges which the consumer must overcome, choosing an appropriate combination of these is a difficult task. In this manner, consumers of SRI profiled mutual funds have to navigate through a complex decision making environment to arrive at a good choice. Based in this notion of decision making in complex environments, this thesis investigates how consumers combine their "traditional" financial objectives with their "additional" SEE consideration and examines the impact of personal factors related to these two areas on consumer investment in SRI profiled mutual funds. Four separate essays on these topics, each investigating a specific stage in the Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (1968) consumer decision making process, are presented. Moreover, in order to understand how complexity impacts consumer decision making in the area, the results of each study are analyzed against a conceptual framework focusing on the complexity of the market. The results show that consumers of SRI profiled mutual funds care about both financial and SEE issues. However, how consumers combine these in their decision making differs. Factors, such as the stage of the purchase decision making process, personal abilities, preferences, and perceptions are found to impact consumer decision making. Against this background, this thesis generates an increased understanding of consumer decision making in complex decision making environments in general and of SRI profiled mutual funds in particular.
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Ghaffari, Shabnam. "Will it fit? consumer decision making in online shopping environments." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/39484.
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Clothing purchases represent the largest
selling category on the internet at $13.6 billion (US Census, 2008), however return rates are extremely high at 14-50%, almost twice as high as return rates for most other categories (Barbaro, 2007). This has negative implications for consumers and retailers as the cost of returns and lost consumers is extremely high. High return rates force retailers to take on the cost of restocking and reselling merchandise, with an estimated $100 billion lost annually (Blanchard 2005). This research focuses on online product representation with the goal of identifying the method of product representation that most effectively improves a consumers' ability to make
accurate size decisions without negatively impacting brand and product quality perceptions. This research uses interviews to assess retailer
beliefs about how best to deploy online clothing visualizations. Next an experiment was conducted to compare alternative clothing model visualizations to assess effects on fit satisfaction, return likelihood, brand and quality perceptions. Finally, to understand current use of visualizations by clothing retailers and their effects on consumer satisfaction and sales, a content analysis was conducted. This study can provide a solution that can improve consumers' abilities to make accurate fit decisions, thus reducing return rates and improving consumer satisfaction, at a minimal cost to retailers.
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Desmeules, Remi. "A multilevel approach for the study of consumer decision making." Thesis, McGill University, 2010. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=92264.
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This thesis features two essays that aim to establish the foundations for a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the more visceral, motivational, and emotional bases for consumer decision making. The first essay tests the hypothesis that approach and avoidance motivations influence decision making through the process of subjective valuation. Using two versions of the Iowa Gambling Task, we find evidence supporting the view that asymmetry in the systems regulating approach and avoidance leads to systematic biases that translate to differences in performance. Specifically, we find that high sensitivity in the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) translates to valuation by feeling and insensitivity to scope in the domain of gains, while high sensitivity in the Behavioral Inhibition System translates to valuation by feeling and insensitivity to scope in the domain of losses.The second essay presents a multilevel latent variable modeling approach designed to select optimally psychophysiological measures for further analysis of within- and between-subject differences. Specifically, a multilevel structural equations model is used to illustrate the approach with data from electrodermal activity obtained from 97 subjects who completed 80 trials on the Iowa Gambling Task. Results indicate that measures based on the area under the curve of a processed waveform are well-suited to explore within- and between-subject differences in the task. I find the interpretation of these measures to be questionable in late blocks, due to a cross-level interaction with the age of participants.
In the conclusion, I present explorations of consumer decision making using the conceptual framework developed in this thesis. Specifically, I use physiological data to uncover the psychological processes involved in subjective valuation, and suggest that scope insensitivity may play a role in the development of trust. Future research and implications for these findings are discussed.
Cette thèse présente deux essais dont le but commun est d'établir les fondations d'une approche multidisciplinaire pour l'étude des bases viscérales, motivationnelles et émotionnelles de la prise de décision des consommateurs. Le premier essai teste l'hypothèse que les motivations d'approche et de retrait influencent la prise de décision par l'entremise du processus d'évaluation subjective. En utilisant deux versions de la «tâche de jeu de l'Iowa», nous trouvons du support pour la position que l'asymétrie dans les systèmes régissant les motivations d'approche et de retraite crée des biais systématiques qui mènent à des différences de performance dans les tâches. Spécifiquement, nous trouvons qu'une haute sensibilité dans le système motivationnel relié à l'approche mène à une évaluation par les émotions et une insensibilité à la magnitude dans le domaine des gains, tandis qu'une haute sensibilité dans le système motivationnel relié au retrait mène à une évaluation par les émotions et une insensibilité à la magnitude dans le domaine des pertes.
Le deuxième essai présente une approche de modélisation par variables latentes à deux niveaux dont le but est de choisir de façon optimale les mesures psychophysiologiques qui pourront être utilisées dans des analyses ultérieures de différences aux niveaux intra- et inter-individus. Un modèle d'équations structurelles à deux niveaux est utilisé pour illustrer l'approche avec des données électrodermales obtenues de 97 sujets ayant complété 80 sélections dans la «tâche de jeu de l'Iowa». Les résultats indiquent que les mesures basées sur l'aire sous la courbe combinées à un traitement des données brutes sont les plus appropriées pour l'exploration des différences intra- et interindividuelles qui apparaissent dans la tâche. L'interprétation de ces mesures doit par contre être remise en question pour les dernières sélections, puisqu'une interaction existe entre l'âge des participants et la progression de ces mesures au cours de l'expérience.
En guise de conclusion, j'utilise le cadre conceptuel développé dans cette thèse pour présenter des explorations de la prise de décision des consommateurs. J'utilise des données physiologiques pour déterminer le processus psychologique qui mènent aux évaluations subjectives, et je suggère que l'insensibilité à la magnitude pourrait jouer un rôle dans l'établissement d'une relation de confiance. La thèse conclut avec des pistes de recherches futures, ainsi qu'une discussion des implications des résultats contenus dans la thèse.
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Molise, Puseletso Bridget. "Consumer decision-making styles for Zambian generation X urban females." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/97348.
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Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of the research was to investigate the decision-making styles of urban Zambian Generation X females shopping for apparel products. The research made use of a Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI) scale developed by Sproles and Kendall (1986) to measure the characteristics of various shopping styles. Out of 300 self-administered questionnaires distributed, 180 were used for data analysis. The Cronbach Alpha coefficients confirmed the reliability of the CSI scale on 7 out of 8 decision-making styles that could be associated with the consumers under review. The study then used Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to establish the variation between the different decision-making styles. The findings revealed that the decision-making styles of quality consciousness and a recreational shopping orientation are highly correlated. The research findings have policy implications and recommendations for the development of marketing strategies and further research have been made.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van die navorsing was om ondersoek te doen na die besluitnemingstyle van stedelike Zambiese vroue van Generasie X wanneer hulle klereprodukte koop. Die navorsing het gebruik gemaak van die inventaris van verbruikerstyle wat deur Sproles en Kendall (1986) ontwikkel is, ’n skaal wat in Engels as die Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI) bekendstaan, om die eienskappe van verskillende inkopiestyle te meet. Uit die 300 self-geadministreerde vraelyste wat versprei is, is 180 vir die ontleding van die data gebruik. The Cronbach Alpha-koëffisiënte kon die betroubaarheid van die CSI-skaal bevestig op 7 uit die 8 besluitnemingstyle wat geassosieer kon word met die verbruikers wat ondersoek is. Die navorsingstudie het daarna van variansieanalise gebruik gemaak om die variasie tussen die verskillende besluitnemingstyle te bepaal. Die bevindings het onthul dat die besluitnemingstyle van gehaltebewustheid en inkopies wat as rekreasie beskou word, hoogs gekorreleerd is. Die navorsingsbevindinge het implikasies vir beleid en aanbevelings is gedoen vir die ontwikkeling van bemarkingstrategieë en vir verdere navorsing.
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LEANZA, FEDERICA. "CONSUMER SPATIAL BEHAVIOR: L'INFLUENZA DELLO STORE LAYOUT SUL DECISION-MAKING." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/39112.
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Oggi le aziende riconoscono come i comportamenti d’acquisto del cliente siano influenzati dall’atmosfera del mondo retail. Le caratteristiche del punto vendita e le sue potenzialità multisensoriali rappresentano una componente fondamentale capace di influenzare il processo di scelta del consumatore da un punto di vista cognitivo ma soprattutto emotivo. Il presente lavoro di tesi propone un’indagine interdisciplinare con l’intenzione di analizzare la figura del consumatore in diversi contesti d’acquisto. Il macro-obiettivo è verificare l’impatto percettivo, cognitivo ed emotivo per comprendere come lo spazio influenzi i processi decisionali di acquisto e come gli elementi contestuali e architettonici ne favoriscano la fruizione. Gli store non sono più considerati semplici luoghi dove acquistare un prodotto ma ambienti in grado di regalare un’esperienza emozionante. L’uso di differenti strumenti d’indagine ha permesso di analizzare le risposte implicite (con l’utilizzo di strumenti neuroscientifici) ed esplicite (grazie all’uso di strumenti tradizionali di psicologia quali questionari e interviste) per avere una visione globale della percezione e delle emozioni del consumatore all’interno di un contesto d’acquisto. Diversamente delle altre ricerche di Consumer Neuroscience fino ad ora esistenti, il lavoro proposto si discosta dalle dinamiche puramente di laboratorio per studiare il cliente all’interno del punto vendita preservando così un ambiente ecologico.Nowadays the companies are aware that the consumer’s buying behavior is influenced by the atmosphere of the retail world. The features of point of sale and its multi-sensory potential are important components which influence cognitively and emotively the consumer choice process. The present thesis aims to present an interdisciplinary research with the intention to analyze the consumer in different sales contexts. The macro-objective is to verify the perceptive, cognitive and emotional impact to understand how the space influences decision-making process and how the contextual and architectural elements encourage its fruition. Stores are no longer considered as simple places to buy a product but environments able to give an emotional experience. The use of different tools allowed us to analyze implicit responses (with neuroscientific tools) and explicit responses (thanks to the use of traditional tools of psychology such as questionnaires and interviews) to have a global view of consumer perception and emotion within the sales context. Unlike other consumer neuroscience research, this work was done outside of laboratory to study the consumer in point of sale and preserving an ecological environment.
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Wang, Yiru. "Want Some Help? How Online Reviews Influence Consumer Decision Making." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1562159132135793.
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Hale, Dena. "Antecedents and consequences of consumer service decision-making self-efficacy /." Available to subscribers only, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1620195581&sid=4&Fmt=2&clientId=1509&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Kurniawan, Sri Hartati. "Consumer decision-making in product selection and product configuration processes /." View abstract or full-text, 2004. http://library.ust.hk/cgi/db/thesis.pl?IEEM%202004%20KURNIA.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-189). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.