Handedness Differences in Belief Updating

以前的决策研究已经确定了许多决策的“偏见”或启发式方法。例如，在一项关于属性框架的经典研究中(Levin&Amp；Gaeth，198)，标记为“75%瘦肉”(正框架)的绞碎牛肉被认为比标记为“25%脂肪”(负框架)的牛肉味道更好，也不那么油腻。研究还表明，并不是每个人都容易受到这些偏见的影响。人们可能会问，为什么？有没有一套基本原则可以描述这种观察到的行为？更重要的是，有没有个体差异因素可以预测为什么一些决策者表现出这些影响，而另一些则没有？最近的研究试图使用稳定的人特征来回答这个问题，例如认知能力和倾向、人格特征和社会/文化差异。尽管这些指数提供了一些洞察力，但答案可能比迄今提出的更根本。具体地说，可能有一种神经心理学的解释，可以解释为什么有些人对信息做出反应，而另一些人没有，以及为什么有些人(但不是所有人)对相同信息的不同形式做出了截然不同的反应。也就是说，决策过程和大脑组织之间可能有很强的联系。这项拟议研究的中心假设是，利手的强度与左脑和右脑的相互连接有关，可能是决策风格的一个非常好的和可推广的预测因子。我们的实验室通过最近的两项研究发现了支持这一观点的初步证据，一项是在说服方面，另一项是在更传统的决策任务中，孕妇(在被告知有1%-3%的机会生下异常婴儿或有97%-99%的机会生下正常婴儿后)给出了生下有出生缺陷婴儿的风险估计。有趣的是，信念更新和惯常的框架效应被证明，但只在“混合型”，而不是“强势型”。还提出了一系列其他研究，这些研究试图复制一些更简单、更可靠的研究，这些研究表明，使用利手作为这些影响的易感性的预测因素，会产生决策“偏差”。这些偏差包括风险选择和目标设定、锚定和调整，以及吸引(或诱骗)效应。这项结合了认知神经心理学和决策制定的工作，可能会促进我们对决策行为的理解和理论化。它将允许改进决策的理论模型，如“适应性决策者”(Payne，Bettman和Johnson，1993)。它还将帮助我们更好地理解日常生活中各种决策任务和个人的信念形成和决策。

Previous research in decision making has identified a number of decision making "biases" or heuristics. For example, in a classic study of attribute framing (Levin & Gaeth, 198), ground beef labeled as "75% lean" (the positive frame) was seen as better tasting and less greasy than the same meat labeled as "25% fat" (the negative frame). Research has also shown that not everyone is susceptible to these biases. The question one might ask is why? Is there a set of underlying principles that can describe this observed behavior? More importantly, are there individual difference factors that can predict why some decision makers show these effects and other do not? Very recent research has attempted to answer this question using stable person characteristics such as cognitive abilities and predispositions, personality traits, and societal/cultural differences. While such indices have provided some insight, the answer may be even more fundamental than heretofore presented. Specifically, there may be a neuropsychological explanation for why some people respond to information and others do not, and why some (but not all) people respond quite differently to somewhat different forms of the same information. That is, there may be a strong link between decision processing and brain organization. The central hypothesis of the proposed research is that strength of handedness, which relates to left brain-right brain interconnectivity, may be a very good and generalizable predictor of decision making style.Preliminary evidence supporting this idea has been found in our lab via two recent studies, one in the area of persuasion and the other in a more traditional decision making task where pregnant women (after being told there is a 1%-3% chance of giving birth to an abnormal baby OR there is a 97%-99% chance of giving birth to a normal baby) gave risk estimates of giving birth to a baby with a birth defect. Interestingly, belief updating and the usual framing effect were demonstrated, but only in "mixed-handers" not "strong-handers." A series of other studies is proposed which attempt to replicate some of the simpler and more robust studies demonstrating decision "biases" using handedness as the predictor of susceptibility to these effects. These biases include risky choice and goal framing, anchoring and adjustment, and the attraction (or decoy) effect. This work, which combines cognitive neuropsychology and decision making, may advance our understanding and theorizing about decision behavior. It will permit the refinement of theoretical models of decision making such as the "adaptive decision maker" (Payne, Bettman, and Johnson, 1993). It will also help us to better understand belief formation and decision making in everyday life across a variety of decision tasks and individuals.