Cognitive Misers Research Articles

Deep thinkers, cognitive misers, and moral responsibility

Moral responsibility is running out of room. Scientific naturalism destroyed the realm of godlike transcendent powers, and recent research on learned helplessness (Martin Seligman, 1975) dragged will power down from the miracle working sphere of moral responsibility and anchored it squarely within the natural environment that shapes our fortitude and lassitude. Now moral responsibility has retreated to its ultimate citadel: the reflective mind. There, with the support of such philosophers as Daniel Dennett and Charles Taylor, moral responsibility has made stubborn stand.

An examination of resource-based and fit-based theories of stereotyping under cognitive load and fit

Should stereotyping be characterised as an act of cognitive miserliness of one of rational meaning-seeking? This paper uses a cognitive load paradigm to investigate the adequacy of popular resource-based explanations of stereotyping in comparison to an alternative fit-based or meaning-based explanation. In Experiment 1, load was increased by means of concurrent tasks within a highly fitting context (where targets generally behaved in a stereotype-consistent fashion). A linear decrease in stereotyping resulted as measured by category confusions on a who-said what recognition task (Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff & Ruderman, 1978). This outcome is inconsistent with a resource-based analysis of stereotyping. Experiment 2 manipulated load as stimulus exposure time. Although load was successfully imposed in this second experiment, stereotyping neither increased nor decreased as a function of load. The concept of cognitive load and the importance of fit for the analysis of stereotyping are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The effect of cognitive load on social categorization in the category confusion paradigm

The category confusion paradigm (Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff & Ruderman, 1978) was used to examine the relationship between cognitive load and the extent of social categorization. The original prediction made by Taylor et al. (1978; Experiment 2) and inferences from the cognitive miser model suggest that categorization should increase or be unaffected by cognitive load. In contrast, it is argued that social categorization can be an effortful and resource-consuming process, especially where the representation of multiple stimuli are concerned. This leads to the prediction that social categorization should decrease with load—assuming there is enough load to produce recall errors in the first place. We obtained results consistent with this analysis in paradigms which manipulated load by means of set-size (Study 1) and processing pace (Study 2). Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Whether close or far: Social distance effects on perceived balance in friendship networks.

Under what circumstances are individuals' perceptions of friendship relations shaped by the balance schema? Using data from 4 organizations varying in size from 21 to 33 members, the authors investigated how ego's perception of the social distance from ego to alter affected the proportion of alter's friendships perceived by ego as balanced. Balance involves both (a) reciprocated friendships between 2 people, and (b) transitive triplets, in which 2 friends of a person are themselves friends. Graphical and regression analyses supported a composite curvilinear model that combined the predictions of emotional tension and cognitive miser perspectives: People tended to perceive relations close to and distant from themselves as more balanced than relations of intermediate distance.

Pragmatic use of categorical information in impression formation.

In 3 experiments on impression formation, participants received categorical (occupation) and individuating information (behavior) about target persons presented either in random order (mixed presentation) or in blocks (blockwise presentation). Presentation mode should be a metainformational cue from which judges infer the purpose of the task. Mixed presentation is a cue for differentiation between categories, and the integration of a category-specific typical case leads to reduced differentiation within categories, assimilation, and, hence, enhanced differentiation between categories. Blocked presentation is a cue for differentiation within categories, and consideration of category boundaries as a frame of reference leads to enhanced differentiation within categories and a concomitant contrast effect. The findings of Experiments 1 and 2 supported this reasoning. Experiment 3 showed, in addition, that an explicit task instruction and the metainformational cue lead to equivalent results. Judgments and impressions about persons can be based on diverse information such as their behavior, traits, group membership, physical appearance, and so forth. These diverse types of information are usually classified into individuating and categorical information. Individuating information refers to a person's behavior or traits, or both, whereas categorical information refers to his or her membership in groups. Judges may use both types of information when forming impressions (for reviews, see Brewer, 1988; Fiske & Neuberg, 1990; Hamilton & Sherman, 1994; Kunda & Thagard, 1996). When they do not have enough diagnostic individuating information or when they do not use this information accurately, the impact of the categorical information is high. Categorical information may influence judgments in a number of ways. An assimilation effect occurs when people are rated as being more similar to their category mean than when assessment is based on individuating information alone (cf. Krueger & Rothbart, 1988; Kunda & ShermanWilliams, 1993; Nelson, Acker, & Manis, 1996; Nelson, Biernat, & Manis, 1990). A contrast effect, on the other hand, occurs when people are rated to be less similar to their category mean than when judged on the basis of individuating information alone (Deaux & Taynor, 1973; Linville & Jones, 1980; Manis, Nelson, & Shedler, 1988; Manis, Paskewitz, & Cotler, 1986; Pratto & Bargh, 1991). These effects have long been treated as distortions that are due to abbreviated and inadequate information processing (the cognitive miser; e.g., Markus & Zajonc,

Source Attributions and Persuasion: Perceived Honesty as a Determinant of Message Scrutiny

A hypothesis derived from current two-route models of persuasion was examined-that a communicator's perceived honesty is a determinant of the extent to which attitude change is based on scrutiny of the substance of the persuasive message. Specifically, cognitive misers are expected to forgo effortful message scrutiny when a communicator can be assumed to be truthful. In a preliminary study, honesty was found to be the source characteristic most highly associated with providing an accurate message. Then, in three experiments, source honesty was manipulated either directly (by presenting information about past honesty of the source) or indirectly (using an expectancy confirmation! disconfirmation procedure). In all three studies, post message attitudes of individuals low in the need for cognition (NC) cognitive misers-were less dependent on message scrutiny when the source was assumed to be relatively honest. For high-NC individuals, message scrutiny did not differ depending on the source.

Prejudice Against Discrimination

(1992). Prejudice Against Discrimination. Psychological Inquiry: Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 184-186.

What Should Rational Cognitive Misers Do?

In the June 1991 issue of this Review John Orbell and Robyn Dawes have argued that prisoner's dilemma games are shaped, in part, by “cognitive misers”—players who assume other players are like themselves. In such games, this results in more play and in a higher expected payoff by cooperators than by defectors, lain McLean agrees with the conclusions of Orbell and Dawes but takes issue with their reasons and their model. In turn, Orbell and Dawes retort, arguing that players in prisoner's dilemma games do not respond as McLean assumes they will.

A “Cognitive Miser” Theory of Cooperators Advantage

We propose a new model of cooperators' advantage depending neither on supplementary incentives nor on cooperators' capacity to recognize, and play selectively with, other cooperators. It depends, rather, on players' making the play-no play decision by the heuristic of projecting their own “cooperate-defect” choices onto potential partners. Cooperators offer to play more often, and fellow cooperators will more often accept their offer. When certain boundary conditions are met, this results in a higher expected payoff for cooperators than for defectors. Empirical support for this heuristic is suggested by expectations data from related social dilemma experiments. Moreover, its use can be justified in Bayesean terms. Our model brings behavioral decision theory's “cognitive miser” paradigm to bear on interdisciplinary concern with the evolution of cooperative behavior and shows how, if other mechanisms provide a suitable “initial kick,” cooperation can evolve in the absence of iteration and in large, mobile societies.

Consumer behavior: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

A s the new decade creeps in and the new century approaches, a time has come to reflect upon and predict the consumer's behavior in the marketplace. Many things have changed since the end of mass marketing and the beginning of market segmentation. Under mass marketing, Henry Ford gave the consumer the Ford in any color as long as it was black. After World War II, marketers switched from making products they wanted to making products the consumer wanted. Finding out what the consumer wants to purchase and why is what consumer behavior is all about. Our theoretical models (see Figure 1) of how consumers make purchase decisions have evolved from the economic paradigm of the 1940s, through the irrational consumer of the 1950s and 1960s, to the information processor of the 1970s, up to the 1980s cognitive miser. Tomorrow's consumers will undoubtedly have a distinctive theoretical decision model that will grow out of the future decision making environment. It is the purpose of this article to outline that future. But first, let us take a brief look at how the study of consumer behavior has evolved since its inception. The individual-oriented consumer behavior of the past will change to a more collective style in the 1990s.

Economic Conditions and Party Competence: Processes of Belief Revision

This paper focuses on the processes by which people revise their beliefs about the abilities of political parties to handle national economic problems. According to the "intuitive statistician" model, such beliefs are highly responsive to new information. However, the "cognitive miser" model views beliefs as highly resistant to change. We attempt to integrate these two models and to test the integrated model, using data drawn from a three-wave panel survey. The results are generally most consistent with the "cognitive miser" portions of the model.