Chaos and Decision Making: Contextual Disorder Reduces Confirmatory Information Processing

Abstract

When making decisions, individuals tend to systematically prefer information that supports their a priori views over information that conflicts with them. This phenomenon is known as confirmatory information processing. The present research investigated whether contextual disorder—a factor that is typically irrelevant to a given decision case yet can significantly influence decision quality—affects confirmatory information processing. In Study 1, decision makers in untidy environments evinced less confirmatory information processing than decision makers in tidy environments. Study 2 replicated this finding and demonstrated that divergent thinking is an important precondition of the relationship between disorder and confirmatory information processing.