On Making the Right Choice: The Deliberation-Without-Attention Effect

Abstract

Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is not always advantageous to engage in thorough conscious deliberation before choosing. On the basis of recent insights into the characteristics of conscious and unconscious thought, we tested the hypothesis that simple choices (such as between different towels or different sets of oven mitts) indeed produce better results after conscious thought, but that choices in complex matters (such as between different houses or different cars) should be left to unconscious thought. Named the "deliberation-without-attention" hypothesis, it was confirmed in four studies on consumer choice, both in the laboratory as well as among actual shoppers, that purchases of complex products were viewed more favorably when decisions had been made in the absence of attentive deliberation.

Affective neuroscience of pleasure: reward in humans and animals

“…An expanded definition may be more useful for neuroscientists when dealing with pleasure. Perhaps surprisingly, the act of engaging in conscious introspection about pleasure does not always improve the quality of its capture (Dijksterhuis et al 2006;Gilbert 2006;Schooler and Mauss 2008). For example, when people introspect extensively about why they prefer a reward stimulus such as one fruit-spread, painting, or car over another, they may often end up more confused about their underlying preferences than when they simply make snap judgments about the same choices (Schooler and Mauss 2008).…”

Adaptive Malleability of Memory: Involuntary Memory in Executing Interpersonal Self-Deception

“…The unconscious mechanism of cost-benefit analysis is complex and constitutes the optimal strategy. The mechanism helps a person form a fight-or-flight decision when faced with a rival through holistic consideration of information including strength and limitations of the person and the rival, the probability of winning, chances of forming an alliance, and methods of distracting the rival to another rival (Dawkins, 1976;Trivers, 1985); however, the optimal solution cannot be reached through conscious consideration (Dijksterhuis, Bos, Nordgren, & van Baaren, 2006) because conscious, controlled, and effortful thinking works in sequential ways that accommodate only a limited amount of information, whereas unconscious, automatic, and effortless thinking works in parallel ways that allow abundant information to be considered simultaneously. The unconscious mechanism also helps determine somatic effort in pursuing reward, with more effort being paid to obtain higher reward, particularly when the task demand is high (Bijleveld, Custers, & Aarts, 2012).…”

Cultural Computing – How to Investigate a Form of Unconscious User Experiences in Mixed Realities

“…One possible answer is for subconscious information processing to forcast the future. Dijksterhuis, Bos, Nordgren, and van Baaren [29][30] could show the advantages of the unconscious information processing, and therefore they open a door to a new view on the relationship towards unconsciousness [31][32][33]. The possible effects of extreme user experiences on their cognitive structure can be addressed as follows: (1) through psychological measures (e.g.…”