Anatomy of an irrational choice: Toward a new hypothesis study on decision making and the dysfunction effect

Abstract

It often happens that the most relevant decisions in terms of consequences are taken in situations of uncertainty and risk, as well as in conditions of strong temporal stress. In such situations, some decisions are more considered, others, instead, appear more irrational. In the last twenty years, studies on decision making have focused mainly on problem solving skills and cognitive processes underlying rational choices. Only since the fifties of the twentieth century, different research paradigms have tried to shed light on the mechanisms responsible for choices that do not conform to the classical model of rational choice. Among these mechanisms the disjunction effect stands out which, although scarcely investigated, could prove to be a fundamental variable.

Method: In order to analyze the reference literature and the studies of the last ten years, a research was carried out on different online science servers (PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, ResearchGate), using the following search keys: irrational choices, rational choices, decision making, decision style, intuitive decisions, deliberate decisions, self-awareness, self-regulation, disjunction effect.

Starting from the theoretical assumptions indicated above, a methodological hypothesis was formulated for the study of decision-making processes, based on unconventional methods, which move away from the administration of the classic tests and decision tasks expressed in verbal form.

Objectives: The aim of this work is to highlight the most relevant studies on irrational choices, in order to outline their anatomy. The final objective is to lay the foundations for the development of an empirical research that thoroughly investigates irrational choices and the disjunction effect through tools such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and Virtual Reality (VR).

Expected results: Using technologically advanced tools applied to psychology research, it would be possible to allow the experimental subjects to act the choice through VR applications, producing an immersive experience. It is expected to reduce the disturbance variables and be able to obtain more precise measurements, overcoming the problems related to the verbal formulation of the decision task, more and more often posed as a fundamental criticism to the study of decision making.