Within and Cross-Domain Effects of Choice-Induced Bias

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests choices influence evaluation, giving rise to choice-induced bias. It is however unknown whether this phenomenon is constrained to the domain of choice, or spans across domains, allowing a decision to influence evaluation of unrelated item-specific information. In a set of 5 experiments (4 preregistered, total of 425 participants) we show that people can be influenced by their choices not only when the choices are relevant to the evaluation (within-domain), but also when they are not (across-domains), and explore the differences between the two. Our generative cognitive model reveals that the bias is driven jointly by two mechanisms: a domain-general, conflict-sensitive consistency bias, and a domain-specific value-update. These two mechanisms can be mapped to two prevalent theories of choice-induced bias: cognitive dissonance, and self-perception theory.