Search results for "Maximizer"
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Maximizers’ Susceptibility to the Effect of Frequency vs. Percentage Format in Risk Representation
2022
The present study explored the susceptibility of maximizers to the effect of the specific information format—frequency vs. percentage—in a risk assessment task. One-hundred and fourteen participants were randomized into two experimental conditions: a frequency format and a percentage format. In both conditions, participants had to rate the level of risk that a mental patient would harm someone after his discharge from a mental health facility, based on the information reported in the psychologist’s assessment for that patient. In the frequency condition, the information was presented in terms of frequencies, whereas in the percentage condition the same information was pres…
Are maximizers more normative decision-makers? An experimental investigation of maximizers' susceptibility to cognitive biases
2021
Abstract The present study tested the hypothesis that maximizers – people who routinely seek to make optimal decisions rather than quickly settling for an acceptable one – are less susceptible to cognitive biases. Experiment 1 showed that high maximizers are less swayed by irrelevant differences in the framing of a decision-making scenario than are low maximizers. Experiment 2 confirmed that maximizers are also less likely to neglect important base rate information when making decisions. Experiment 3 showed that maximizers are less likely to stick with a bad plan in which they have already invested (the sunk-cost bias) and therefore are quicker to switch to a more attractive alternative pla…