![]() ![]() However, what happens in situations when we equally prefer two choice alternatives and therefore existing preferences are not sufficient to differentiate among them? In other words, how do we solve hard decisions?Īn alternative possibility is that preferences are adjusted much earlier, that is, while a hard decision is being made, when the value differential of the options is not sufficient to choose among them. This explanation is in line with neuroimaging studies, which suggested that at the time of re-evaluation, after dissonance between preferences and choices is detected by the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC van et al., 2009 Kitayama et al., 2013), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) triggers changes in the neural representation of value ( Izuma et al., 2010, 2015 Mengarelli et al., 2015) in the ventromedial PFC (vmPFC) or ventral striatum (vStr Izuma et al., 2010 Chammat et al., 2017). Preferences are then adjusted after a hard decision has been made to reduce the dissonance between initial preference and the decision outcome (reviewed by Harmon-Jones et al., 2015). ![]() Prominent explanations of the choice-induced preference change effect are based on ( Festinger, 1957) theory of cognitive dissonance, which proposes that discrepancies between actions and preferences cause psychological discomfort. This empirical observation is now commonly referred to as the choice-induced preference change effect (reviewed by Izuma and Murayama, 2013 Enisman et al., 2021). Specifically, a growing body of studies found that when individuals must make binary choices between items they initially indicated to prefer equally well, their preferences for the chosen option increases and decreases for the rejected option. However, one highly debated question over the past decade has been whether preferences can change endogenously, that is, in the absence of any additional external information about the choice options, and merely as a function of our past choice history. ![]() After we tasted our selection, we can adjust our preferences for that item based on this recent experience. Accordingly, in a supermarket we assign values to items based on our stable preferences and choose the item we assigned the highest value to. An alteration of preferences is only expected if new (external) information about choice alternatives becomes available (e.g., through the consumption of a good). Where do our preferences come from? Traditional neurocognitive models of value-based choice view decision-making as a serial process in which stable preferences are the basis of subsequent choices ( Dolan and Dayan, 2013). ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |