The Multifold Relationship Between Memory and Decision Making: An individual-differences study

Maximizing is a decision strategy that seeks the very best option, which is more elaborate and potentially more regret-inducing than choosing an option that is ‘good enough.’ In surveys with a large national sample, we find that older adults are less likely than younger adults to self-report maximizing, which is associated with their better experienced well-being reported two years later. This pattern holds after controlling for demographic characteristics and negative life events. Our findings suggest that older adults could possibly be opting for decision strategies that make them happier. We discuss implications for interventions that aim to improve decision making.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Choosing to be happy? Age differences in “maximizing” decision strategies and experienced emotional well-being.

Bruin¹,

Parker²,

Strough³

2016

“…Recent studies that included age-diverse samples found that older adults were better than younger adults at avoiding sunk-cost bias, or cancelling failing plans even when investments were irretrievable (Bruine de Bruin, Parker, & Fischoff, 2012; Bruine de Bruine, Strough, & Parker, 2014; Del Missier, Mäntylä, Hansson, Bruine de Bruin, & Parker, 2013; Strough, Mehta, McFall, & Schuller, 2008). This age-related improvement typically showed little to no associations with age-related changes in fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities, which suggested the importance of non-cognitive factors (see Strough et al, 2015b for a review).…”

Section: Aging and Decisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For older adults, experience and emotion regulation skills may facilitate the preservation of decision-making competence, even in the face of cognitive declines (Peters & Bruine de Bruin, 2012; Peters, Hess, Vastjfall, & Aumann, 2007; Strough et al, 2011a; Strough et al, 2015b). A growing number of studies have tested this idea (Del Missier et al, 2013; Hess, Osowski, & Leclerc, 2005; Hess et al, 2013; Mikels, Cheung, Cone, & Gilovich, 2012). Emotion regulation was important for understanding why older adults made better decisions about sunk costs (Bruine de Bruin et al, 2014; Strough, Schlosnagle & DiDonato, 2011b).…”

Section: Aging and Decisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What were they thinking? Reducing sunk-cost bias in a life-span sample.

Strough¹,

Bruin²,

Parker³

et al. 2016

We tested interventions to reduce “sunk-cost bias,” the tendency to continue investing in failing plans even when those plans have soured and are no longer rewarding. We showed members of a national U.S. life-span panel a hypothetical scenario about a failing plan that was halfway complete. Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention to focus on how to improve the situation, an intervention to focus on thoughts and feelings, or a no-intervention control group. First, we found that the thoughts and feelings intervention reduced sunk-cost bias in decisions about project completion, as compared to the improvement intervention and the no-intervention control. Second, older age was associated with greater willingness to cancel the failing plan across all three groups. Third, we found that introspection processes helped to explain the effectiveness of the interventions. Specifically, the larger reduction in sunk-cost bias as observed in the thoughts and feelings intervention (vs. the improvement intervention) was associated with suppression of future-oriented thoughts of eventual success, and with suppression of augmentations of the scenario that could make it seem reasonable to continue the plan. Fourth, we found that introspection processes were related to age differences in decisions. Older people were less likely to mention future-oriented thoughts of eventual success associated with greater willingness to continue the failing plan. We discuss factors to consider when designing interventions for reducing sunk-cost bias.

“…Having good decision-making competence is associated with better life outcomes, even after controlling for socio-economic status and other abilities (Bruine de Bruin, Parker, & Fischhoff, 2007). However, well-documented age-related declines in fluid cognitive ability may threaten the quality of older adults’ decisions (Bruine de Bruin, Parker, & Fischhoff, 2012; DelMissier, Mäntylä, Hansson, Bruine de Bruin, & Parker, in press; Finucane & Gullion, 2010), underscoring the need for identifying other, perhaps non-cognitive, pathways to maintaining decision-making competence across the life span. A better understanding of the skills that contribute to making good decisions should help us to design interventions that teach better decision making to people of all ages, thus improving quality of life across the life span.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The few studies that have included age-diverse samples report inconsistent findings about the relationship between aging and decision-making competence, perhaps due to using different types of decision tasks. Indeed, studies using cognitively demanding decision tasks show age-related declines in performance, but studies using cognitively less demanding decision tasks show either no change or improvements with age (Bruine de Bruin et al, 2012; DelMissier et al, in press; Peters & Bruine de Bruin, 2012). This pattern of results is in line with the emerging view that good decisions do not only involve cognitive abilities but also affective or experiential skills (Reyna, 2004; Stanovich & West, 2008), and with speculations that age-related improvements in affective or experiential skills may counteract age-related cognitive declines in decision making (Hess, Queen, & Ennis, 2012; Peters, Hess, Västfjäll, & Auman, 2007; Peters & Bruine de Bruin, 2012; Strough et al, 2011a).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting older isn’t all that bad: Better decisions and coping when facing “sunk costs”.

Bruin¹,

Strough²,

Parker³

2014

Because people of all ages face decisions that affect their quality of life, decision-making competence is important across the life span. According to theories of rational decision making, one crucial decision skill involves the ability to discontinue failing commitments despite irrecoverable investments also referred to as ‘sunk costs.’ We find that older adults are better than younger adults at making decisions to discontinue such failing commitments especially when irrecoverable losses are large, as well as at coping with the associated irrecoverable losses. Our results are relevant to interventions that aim to promote better decision-making competence across the life span.