社会与工程心理学研究室知识库

行为决策的研究发现，人类的行为并非完全理性的，而是有限理性的。对于同一问题，使用策略上相同的决策方式会引起个体决策偏好的变化。前人已经发现选择-出价、选择-匹配、单独评估-联合评估等多种决策方式引起决策偏好变化的现象。而我们则发现选择与放弃两种决策程序在策略上相同，但是个体在这两种决策方式下进行决策也会出现偏好变化的现象。本实验主要关注选择-放弃两种决策程序在跨期决策中对个体偏好的影响。
依据解释水平理论，选择与放弃两种决策程序虽然在策略上相同，但是我们推断两种决策程序诱发的解释水平存在差异，即选择程序诱发低解释水平、放弃程序诱发高解释水平。因此，我们预期选择程序下，个体更加关注低解释水平的时间维度；放弃程序下，个体更加关注高解释水平的金钱维度。因此，相较于选择程序，个体在放弃程序下更加偏好长远的选项。本研究结果也证实了我们的实验假设。 
研究一探讨了选择与放弃两种决策程序的解释水平差异，共包含两个实验。我们分别通过直接测量（实验 1）与间接测量（实验 2）两种方式检验决策程序解释水平差异。直接测量结果显示放弃程序解释水平更高；间接测量结果显示，被试在放弃程序下更加关注价值，意味放弃程序解释水平更高。两个实验都证明放弃程序解释水平更高。
研究二则探讨了两种决策方式在跨期决策中对个体偏好的影响，共包含两个实验。其中实验 3 通过定量的方式，直接测量个体在两种决策程序下折扣率的变化来检验两种决策方式对个体跨期偏好的影响；实验 4 通过定性的方式，以跨期决策研究中经典的二择一情境问题探讨了两种决策方式对个体跨期偏好的影响。结果显示，相较于选择程序，个体在放弃程序下的折扣率更高，更加偏好长远选项。研究二的结果符合实验假设。
研究三则通过操纵解释水平检验了个体跨期偏好随解释水平变化而发生的动态变化。在不同程序下，通过“为何做”任务和“如何做”任务分别启动高解释水平和低解释水平，结果发现被试对延迟选项主观值的判断随着解释水平的提高而不断提高。这意味着解释水平是影响被试跨期偏好的重要影响因素。

Classical economics theory assumes perfect human rationality. However, decades of research in decision-making have established that actual behavior deviates systematically from rational model, individuals are always bounded rational. Strategically equivalent procedures for assessing preferences should give rise to the same preference order. A series of study documented robust preference-reversal phenomena through the task of choice and pricing, choice and matching, joint and separate evaluation. Though choice and giving-up are strategically equivalent, we think the preference elicited through a direct choice differs from the preference elicited through a giving-up task in the intertemporal decision-making. 
According to the Construal Level Theory (CLT), individuals may use different level construal in the procedure of choice and giving-up. Individuals may use low-level construal in the choice task, and high-level construal in the giving-up task. Therefore, we predict that individuals will focus on the time in the choice task, which is the low-level feature. While individuals will focus on the money in the giving-up task, which is the high-level feature. Hence, individuals prefer the larger-but-later option more in the giving-up task than in the choice task. In this research, we conducted three studies to explore the preference-change phenomenon elicited through choice and giving-up tasks in intertemporal decision-making. 
Study 1 used two experiments to investigate the difference about construal level between choice task and giving-up task. Experiment 1 measured the difference about construal level directly by the Behavior Identification Form. Experiment 2 investigate the effects of feasibility and desirability in choice and giving-up task. The results supported the hypothesis: the construal level in giving-up task is higher..
Study 2 explored the preference-change phenomenon between choice and giving-up task in intertemporal decision-making. Experiment 3 measured the discounting rate through a quantitative way to test the impact of two different decision-making procedure on individual preference. Experiment 4 used the classical research paradigm in intertemporal decision-making studies to test the influence of the two decision-making procedure, which is a qualitative way. Both these two experiments showed that relative to the choice task, individuals prefer the larger-but-later option more.
Study 3 primed different level construals to examine the impact of it on individuals’ decision preference in different procedures. Study 3 showed that the subjective value of the delayed reward will increase as the construal level increase. It means that construal level is the potential factor which affects the intertemporal preference. It’s worth a further study in the future research.