The Attraction Effect in Decision Making: Superior Performance by Older Adults

Abstract

Previous work showed that older adults' choice performance can be wiser than that of younger adults (Tentori, Osherson, Hasher, & May, 2001). We contrasted two possible interpretations: a general expertise/wisdom view that suggests that older adults are generally more skilled at making decisions than younger adults and a domain-specific expertise view that suggests that older adults are more skilled decision makers only in domains in which they have greater knowledge. These hypotheses were contrasted using attraction effect tasks in two different domains: earning extra credit in a course and grocery shopping, domains presumed to be of different levels of knowledge to younger and older adults. Older adults showed consistent choice for both domains; younger adults showed consistent choice only for the extra credit problem. Several explanations of these findings are considered, including Damasio's somatic marker theory and age differences in reliance on heuristic versus analytic styles.

Similarity and attraction effects in episodic memory judgments

“…The effects were quite weak (see measures of association), but the similarity effect was strengthened by increasing C's competitiveness over A. Effect sizes in the decision-making literature also tend to vary depending on the stimuli and task conditions (e.g., Kim & Hasher, 2005). Tversky (1972) observed similarity effects of 9% and 13% swings from baseline when choosing between college applicants and gambles, respectively.…”

“…(2) Do the effects apply to all individuals or are some groups less susceptible (e.g., for evidence that older adults show smaller attraction effects in decisionmaking than do young adults, see Kim & Hasher, 2005;Tentori, Osherson, Hasher, & May, 2001)? (3) Do the effects apply to other aspects of episodic memories in addition to vividness, such as relative recency judgments (Friedman, 1993)?…”

A Perspective on Eating Behaviors from the Field of Judgment and Decision Making

“…For example, Tentori, Osherson, Hasher, and May [47] demonstrated that older adults were less likely to let situational information (e.g., the attractiveness of a discount in comparison to other available discounts) influence their decisions in a grocery store when its choice would require a larger minimum purchase than their usual budget. Tentori et al argued that older adults' everyday life experience with the grocery-store context is advantageous because they have knowledge of the situational variables that may influence their judgments and can discount irrelevant information (see also [48] for similar results). In another example, in examining decisions about over-the-counter drugs, Johnson and Drungle [49] found that older adults were more likely to focus on active ingredients than were younger adults and were also more systematic in their information searches, presumably reflecting their greater experience with using these drugs.…”

Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier

“…In the driving study, older adults tended to vary their decisions more (i.e., greater inconsistency) and have less confidence about their decisions, but the overall quality of younger and older adults' route decisions was similar (Walker et al, 1997). Kim and Hasher (2005) actually found a performance advantage for older adults relative to undergraduates. In decision-making tasks in two domains (earning extra credit in a course and grocery shopping), undergraduates were actually more prone to an erroneous heuristic bias (the ''attraction effect'' or a preference for previously seen solutions, even if they are no longer optimal) than older adults on the grocery task.…”