Motivational States and Incentives

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Research on economic decision making has shown that increasing monetary incentives does not always improve decision-making performance (and sometimes even impairs it). We observed in previous research that different motivational states like mindsets and ego-depletion affect decision making. Surprisingly, the effects are sometimes larger than those of increased monetary incentives. This impact, however, can go in opposite directions. That is, sometimes certain motivational states seem to lead to more rational behavior and improve decision making, while in other cases the effect of the same motivational states can result in strong deviations from rationality, i.e., impaired decision making.Whether the influence of motivational states and monetary incentives on decision making is based on automatic or controlled processes is rather unclear in the literature at this point. The present project examines this question by inducing different motivational states and comparing their effects on economic decision making. We will test the impact of motivational states and incentives on processes of economic decision making. The aim is to examine the relevance of defaults (e.g., overconfidence in own skills) that rely on automatic processes thus being implemented immediately, quickly, unconsciously, and without much effort (Alós-Ferrer and Strack, 2014; Strack and Deutsch, 2004). Crucially, we will examine whether these defaults can be controlled by motivational states at all or whether they are just too robust to be changed. If they can be influenced, the question will be whether controlled processes of decision making are absolutely necessary or whether some motivational states can trigger automatic processes interfering with the (automatically installed) default mode. Moreover, we plan to test for gender differences. To investigate automatic and controlled decision processes, we measure decision outcomes (e.g., heuristics), and the associated response times. The latter are indicators of whether automatic or controlled processes determine decision making. Depending on the research question, we will also analyze eye tracking data and event-related potentials (ERPs) observed in electrocortical activity in the brain. Our findings are relevant for society and for the economy, because they aim at behavioral regulation, and specifically how to optimize economic decision making by inducing specific motivational states (or to prevent certain states). Our results will also contribute to the gender discussion on overconfidence. Our objective is to single out specific motivational interventions (that can be self-induced) to help female decision makers increase their confidence in their own knowledge and skills