Motivational States and Incentives

对经济决策的研究表明，增加金钱激励并不总能提高决策绩效（有时甚至会损害决策绩效）。我们在之前的研究中观察到，不同的动机状态，如心态和自我损耗，会影响决策。令人惊讶的是，这种影响有时比增加金钱激励的影响更大。然而，这种影响可能会走向相反的方向。也就是说，有时某些动机状态似乎会导致更理性的行为并改善决策，而在其他情况下，相同动机状态的影响可能会导致强烈的理性偏差，即决策受损。动机状态和金钱激励对决策的影响是基于自动过程还是受控过程，在这一点上，文献中还相当不清楚。本项目通过诱导不同的动机状态并比较它们对经济决策的影响来检验这个问题。我们将测试动机状态和激励对经济决策过程的影响。其目的是检查依赖于自动过程的默认值（例如，对自己技能的过度自信）的相关性，从而立即，快速，无意识地实施，并且不需要太多努力（Alós-Ferrer和Strack, 2014； Strack和Deutsch， 2004）。至关重要的是，我们将检查这些默认是否可以由动机状态控制，或者它们是否过于强大而无法改变。如果它们可以受到影响，那么问题将是受控的决策过程是否绝对必要，或者某些动机状态是否可以触发干扰（自动安装的）默认模式的自动过程。此外，我们计划测试性别差异。为了研究自动和受控的决策过程，我们测量决策结果（例如，启发式）和相关的响应时间。后者是自动或受控过程决定决策的指标。根据研究问题，我们还将分析眼动追踪数据和大脑皮层电活动中观察到的事件相关电位（ERPs）。我们的研究结果与社会和经济相关，因为它们的目标是行为调节，特别是如何通过诱导特定的动机状态（或防止某些状态）来优化经济决策。我们的研究结果也将有助于对过度自信的性别讨论。我们的目标是挑选出具体的动机干预措施（可以是自我诱导的）来帮助女性决策者增强她们对自己的知识和技能的信心

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