Complicating Decisions: The Work Ethic Heuristic and the Construction of Effortful Decisions

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. General 2016-07, Vol.145 (7), p.807-829
• Main Authors: Schrift, Rom Y., Kivetz, Ran, Netzer, Oded
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Achievement; Behavioral decision theory; Career Mobility; Choice Behavior; Conflict; Conflict (Psychology); Culture; Decision Making; Experimental psychology; Female; Heuristic; Heuristics; Human; Humans; Information processing; Male; Memory; Mental Recall; Motivation; Perceptual Distortion; Preferences; Recall; Thinking; Work (Attitudes Toward); Work ethic; Work Performance; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0096-3445; 1939-2222
• DOI: 10.1037/xge0000171

The notion that effort and hard work yield desired outcomes is ingrained in many cultures and affects our thinking and behavior. However, could valuing effort complicate our lives? In the present article, the authors demonstrate that individuals with a stronger tendency to link effort with positive outcomes end up complicating what should be easy decisions. People distort their preferences and the information they search and recall in a manner that intensifies the choice conflict and decisional effort they experience before finalizing their choice. Six experiments identify the effort-outcome link as the underlying mechanism for such conflict-increasing behavior. Individuals with a stronger tendency to link effort with positive outcomes (e.g., individuals who subscribe to a Protestant Work Ethic) are shown to complicate decisions by: (a) distorting evaluations of alternatives (Study 1); (b) distorting information recalled about the alternatives (Studies 2a and 2b); and (3) distorting interpretations of information about the alternatives (Study 3). Further, individuals conduct a superfluous search for information and spend more time than needed on what should have been an easy decision (Studies 4a and 4b).