Publications [#270555] of James R. Bettman

Journal Articles

1. Luce, MF; Bettman, JR; Payne, JW (1997). Choice processing in emotionally difficult decisions.. Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, 23(2), 384-405. [9080010], [doi]
   (last updated on 2024/04/23)

   Abstract:
   Choice conflicts between one's important values may cause negative emotion. This article extends the standard effort-accuracy approach to explaining task influences on decision processing by arguing that coping goals will interact with effort minimization and accuracy maximization goals for negatively emotion-laden decision tasks. These coping goals may involve both a desire to process in a thorough, accurate manner and a desire to avoid particularly distressing aspects of processing. On the basis of this extended framework, the authors hypothesized and found in 3 experiments that decision processing under increasing negative emotion both becomes more extensive and proceeds more by focusing on one attribute at a time. In particular, increased negative emotion leads to more attribute-based processing at the beginning of the decision process. The results are inconsistent with views that negative emotion acts only as an incentive or only as a source of decision complexity.