Attribute Preference and Selection in Multi-Attribute Decision Making: Implications for Unconscious and Conscious Thought

Consciousness and Cognition, 19, 644-652

29 Pages Posted: 22 May 2012

See all articles by Srinivasan Narayanan

Srinivasan Narayanan

University of Allahabad - Centre of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences

Sumitava Mukherjee

Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 1, 2010

Abstract

Unconscious thought theory (UTT) states that all information is taken into account and the attributes are weighted optimally resulting in better decisions in complex decision problems during unconscious thought. Very few studies have investigated the actual amount of information processed in the unconscious thought condition. We hypothesized that only a small subset of information might be considered during unconscious thought (like conscious thought). To test this possibility and to explore the way attribute information is selected and combined, we performed computer simulations on the datasets used by previous researchers. The simulations showed that considering a small subset (3-4) of attributes, yields results comparable to previous studies. There is no need to posit infinite capacity in the unconscious thought condition. The results also suggest that weight information is used for attribute selection that could potentially explain the difficulties in replicating the deliberation-without-attention effect.

Keywords: Decision making, Unconscious thought, Sub-sampling, Deliberation-without-attention, WADD

Suggested Citation

Narayanan, Srinivasan and Mukherjee, Sumitava, Attribute Preference and Selection in Multi-Attribute Decision Making: Implications for Unconscious and Conscious Thought (January 1, 2010). Consciousness and Cognition, 19, 644-652, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2064496

Srinivasan Narayanan (Contact Author)

University of Allahabad - Centre of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences ( email )

Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh 211002
India

Sumitava Mukherjee

Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad ( email )

Vastrapur
Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380 015
India

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
37
Abstract Views
353
PlumX Metrics