Dual-process Theory Research Articles

The Influence of Tourist Attraction Type on Product Price Perception and Neural Mechanism in Tourism Consumption: An ERP Study.

Tourism consumption is a topic with heated debates in tourism research, and pricing tourism products is a crucial task for tourism managers. Different types of tourist attractions offer different experiences to tourists, which affect their price perceptions and purchase decisions. This study combined questionnaires and event-related potentials (ERPs) measures to explore the magnitude of psychological conflict and the degree of emotional arousal that consumers experience when faced with different prices of goods in different scenic types. The questionnaire results showed that attraction type influenced consumers' price perceptions and that consumers were willing to pay higher prices for products in attractions. The ERP results implied that in the early stage of cognition, attraction type did not affect consumers' perceptual processing, while price information attracted consumers' cognitive attention. In the late stage of cognition, attraction type, and price information jointly influenced consumers' decision-making, and consumers tended to accept high prices of products in entertainment attractions and cultural attractions, but consumers were more sensitive to the price of products in cultural attractions and less tolerant to price increases. The study elucidated how price information influenced consumers' purchase decisions of tourism products at different stages of the dual-process theory, which can assist tourism managers in devising different pricing strategies and positioning strategies based on the attributes of attractions, to enhance product sales and revenues. This would further the vision of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) of "tourism fostering economic development".

The neural model of front-of-package label processing.

Front-of-package (FOP) labels have been adopted in many countries to battle the obesity pandemic and its serious health consequences by providing clearer and easier-to-understand nutrition and health information. The effectiveness of FOP labels has been generally confirmed, with some contextual and individual factors modifying their effectiveness. Existing theories (eg, the dual-process theory) and shifting priorities for self-control, provide some explanations for the FOP label effect. However, the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying the processing of FOP labels remain unknown. Here, a new model, namely, the neural model of FOP label processing, has been proposed to fill this gap by providing an integrated account of FOP label processing while simultaneously considering multiple important situational and individual factors in the same framework. This neural model is built on the core eating network (ie, the ventral reward pathway and the dorsal control pathway) for food cue processing and actual food consumption. The new model explains how FOP labels may facilitate attention, influence the core eating network, and thus alter food choices. It also demonstrates how motivation may modify FOP label processing in 2 ways: affecting attention (the indirect way) and changing the process of evaluating the food (the direct way). It further explains how some contextual and individual factors (eg, ego depletion, time pressure, and health knowledge) influence the process. Thus, the neural model integrates evidence from behavioral, eye-tracking, and neuroimaging studies into a single, integrated account, deepening understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms of FOP label processing. This model might facilitate consensus on the most successful FOP label. Moreover, it could provide insights for consumers, food industries, and policy makers and encourage healthy eating behaviors.

To bridge or not to bridge: Moral Judgement in Cocaine Use Disorders, a case-control study on human morality

ABSTRACTBackgroundIn the “Dual-Process theory”, morality is characterized by the interaction between an automatic-emotional process, mediated by the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) and linked to personal-deontological decisions, and a rational-conscious one, mediated by the Dorso-Lateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) and linked to impersonal-utilitarian decisions. These areas are altered by chronic use of cocaine, with a possible impact on moral decision-making.ObjectiveTo evaluate the difference between a group of Cocaine Use Disorder (CUD) patients and a control group in moral decision-making.MethodsSubjects with CUD were compared to an equal-sized healthy group regarding their moral decision-making. Trolley and Footbridge Moral Dilemmas were administered to each group. The quality of the answer (yes or no) and the time needed to answer were recorded.ResultsThe recruited group includes 72 subjects, 36 with CUD and 36 healthy subjects (average age of 39.51 ± 9.89). In the Trolley dilemma, almost all the subjects (97.3%) answered “yes”, while in the Footbridge dilemma CUD subjects answered “yes” more often (52.7%) than the healthy group (19.4%).ConclusionFor strong emotional dilemmas (Footbridge), cocaine users answered “yes” with a higher frequency compared to healthy subjects, highlighting a wider utilitarian tendency in decision-making and a poor emotional participation.

Exercise as the sum of our choices between behavioral alternatives: The Decisional Preferences in Exercising (DPEX) test

Exercising can be theorized as the result of choosing one behavior over alternative behaviors. The Decisional Preferences in Exercising (DPEX) test is a computerized, easy-to-use, publicly available (open source Python code: https://osf.io/ahbjr/) and highly adaptive research tool based on this rationale. In the DPEX, participants are asked to choose between two images by pressing a key on the computer keyboard, one showing a physical exercise and the other showing a non-exercise behavioral alternative in a series of trials. Combinations are randomly assembled from two definable pools of stimuli trial-per-trial. The test can be scored either based on a crossed random effects model (facilitating the use of different stimulus material in different studies without compromising the comparability of test scores) or with a simple proportion score. Data from diverse study samples (N = 451) showed strong correlations of DPEX scores with past and future exercise behavior (r = 0.42 and 0.47 respectively) as well as with affective experiences with exercise (e.g., ‘pleasure-displeasure’: r = 0.47). DPEX test scores discriminated between exercisers and non-exercisers according to receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis. The DPEX may be used to examine research questions derived from dual process theories, the effects of psychological states on behavioral choices can be tested, or the effects of behavior change interventions can be evaluated. The DPEX helps to avoid common method bias in the assessment of exercise behavior, for example, when psychological variables are measured with questionnaires.

Evidence for conflict detection from the self-reported conflict measure

ABSTRACT Human thinking is typically biased. A central question in dual process theories is whether people detect conflicts between heuristic and logical information. In the present study, we explored this issue. Participants were presented with conflict and non-conflict base-rate neglect problems and syllogism problems, followed by self-reported conflict measures determining the extent to which they considered alternative solutions after resolving each problem. Although the participants generally could not correctly answer the conflict problems, the results showed that their self-reported conflict measures in the incorrect conflict items were lower than those in the correct non-conflict items, indicating that the participants could recognise the conflict between heuristic and logical information. The implications of the ongoing debate on conflict detection are also discussed.

Too much or less? The effect of financial literacy on resident fraud victimization

Fraud not only damages the wealth and reputation of individuals, but also poses a threat to social security. Although the relationship between financial literacy and resident fraud victimization has been discussed in recent studies, previous research has ignored the ways in which residents make psychological decisions when faced with fraud, and findings have not been agreed upon. The purpose of this study is whether and how financial literacy influences fraud victimization in the risky decision-making process. Under dual process theories, this study constructs regression models using the survey sample (N = 16352) from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS). Our findings show that there is a U-shaped relationship between financial literacy and fraud victimization, and that this relationship is heterogeneous across gender. Further analysis found a moderating effect of Subjective Risk Attitudes (SRA) on this relationship, with risk preferences causing the U-shaped relationship between financial literacy and resident fraud victimization to gradually shift to a monotonic positive relationship. In addition, we consider the problem of endogeneity, which has been neglected in previous studies, and construct a new instrumental variable to address endogeneity. Our study provides some new insights into the behavioral analysis of residents' economic decisions.

Re-Examining The Financial Literacy – SME Growth Nexus: Fresh Evidence from Causal Mediation Analysis

The importance of SMEs to the growth of emerging economies cannot be overemphasized. SMEs remain an important source of employment and economic growth for most developing economies. However, it has been found that, most SMEs in developing countries are unable to survive even up to their fifth year of operation due to a multiplicity of factors including the level of financial literacy and risk attitude of SME owners. The current study aims to examine the effect of financial literacy on SME growth mediated by the risk attitude of SME owners. The study’s data was collected from SME owners/managers in Ghana. 500 questionnaires were administered and out of the 432 retrieved, 400 were deemed useful for analysis using causal mediation. The study found a significantly positive association between financial literacy and SME growth in the main outcome model. Also, risk attitude was found to be positively related to financial literacy in the mediation model, whereas risk attitude further mediated the relationship between financial literacy and SME growth which demonstrates that risk attitude plays an intermediary role in the association between financial literacy and SME growth. Our results support the dual process theory of reasoning, according to which decisions made by entrepreneurs to improve the growth and sustainability of their businesses are influenced by two different systems of thought: the automatic unconscious system, which is based on their risk tolerance, and the intentional conscious system, which weighs numerous factors and models in light of their financial literacy.

A Longitudinal Examination of Four Processual Mechanisms in Career Decision Making

The dual-process theory of career decision making (DTC) proposes four processual mechanisms that explain the career decision-making process and outcomes. Although research has examined the validity of the four processual mechanisms using a cross-sectional dataset in China, the roles of the four mechanisms in career decision making cannot be fully established without longitudinal and cross-cultural analyses. Using a sample of U.S. college students ( n = 206), the current study examined the validity of the four processual mechanisms in explaining the joint operation of five major decision-making difficulties with subsequent career decidedness as the criterion. The results supported not only the standalone mechanisms of managing state and persistent decision uncertainty but also the joint mechanisms from managing state (persistent) uncertainty to managing persistent (state) uncertainty. Therefore, the current study adds evidence to the DTC, particularly regarding the scientific and practical necessity of differentiating between state and persistent decision uncertainty and between reducing uncertainty and reducing the threat of uncertainty. Additionally, the current study offers interesting implications for the interplay of major decision difficulties across different sociocultural contexts of China and the U.S.

Optimizing human-AI collaboration: Effects of motivation and accuracy information in AI-supported decision-making

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly support human decision-making in fields like medicine, management, and finance. However, such human-AI (HAI) collaboration is often less effective than AI systems alone. Moreover, efforts to make AI recommendations more transparent have failed to improve the decision quality of HAI collaborations. Based on dual process theories of cognition, we hypothesized that suboptimal HAI collaboration is partly due to heuristic information processing of humans, creating a trust imbalance towards the AI system. In an online experiment with 337 participants, we investigated motivation and accuracy information as potential factors to induce more deliberate elaboration of AI recommendations, and thus improve HAI collaboration. Participants worked on a simulated personnel selection task and received recommendations from a simulated AI system. Participants' motivation was varied through gamification, and accuracy information through additional information from the AI system. Results indicate that both motivation and accuracy information positively influenced HAI performance, but in different ways. While high motivation primarily increased humans’ use in high-quality recommendations only, accuracy information improved both the use of low- and high-quality recommendations. However, a combination of high motivation and accuracy information did not yield additional improvement of HAI performance.

Cognitive perspectives on maintaining physicians' medical expertise: II. Acquiring, maintaining, and updating cognitive skills.

Over the course of training, physicians develop significant knowledge and expertise. We review dual-process theory, the dominant theory in explaining medical decision making: physicians use both heuristics from accumulated experience (System 1) and logical deduction (System 2). We then discuss how the accumulation of System 1 clinical experience can have both positive effects (e.g., quick and accurate pattern recognition) and negative ones (e.g., gaps and biases in knowledge from physicians' idiosyncratic clinical experience). These idiosyncrasies, biases, and knowledge gaps indicate a need for individuals to engage in appropriate training and study to keep these cognitive skills current lest they decline over time. Indeed, we review converging evidence that physicians further out from training tend to perform worse on tests of medical knowledge and provide poorer patient care. This may reflect a variety of factors, such as specialization of a physician's practice, but is likely to stem at least in part from cognitive factors. Acquired knowledge or skills gained may not always be readily accessible to physicians for a number of reasons, including an absence of study, cognitive changes with age, and the presence of other similar knowledge or skills that compete in what is brought to mind. Lastly, we discuss the cognitive challenges of keeping up with standards of care that continuously evolve over time.

Is my work racist? Critical thinking and critical discourse in social work research

The United States is once again experiencing a window of time wherein there is a heightened acknowledgement and understanding of our history as a racist society. Many researchers are discussing the impact of their work in this new light. Researchers are in a unique position that holds power to chart new directions and paths forward, or to reinforce the status quo. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis and Dual Process Theory, we examine our own research, looking at language as action. We suggest that researchers are not objective observers but active participants, and as such, must struggle to understand how our worldviews shape our work. We illustrate how critical thinking shapes our understanding of society, and how that understanding underpins our research from the framing of our questions to the interpretation of results. We explain how the discourse of research serves to not only capture but drive dominant ideologies. We offer suggestions for considering research in the context of social justice.

The doctor knows or the evidence shows: An online survey experiment testing the effects of source trust, pro-vaccine evidence, and dual-processing in expert messages recommending child COVID-19 vaccination to parents.

Increasing child vaccination rates is a critical step toward mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Both distrust in expert sources and concern about the safety and efficacy of vaccines may contribute to parent vaccine hesitancy. The present study is the first to test the effectiveness of building trust and providing evidence supporting child COVID-19 vaccines in recommendation messages for parents. Based on dual-processing theories, emphasis on source trustworthiness and pro-vaccine evidence may each be particularly effective when the other is not present. It was hypothesized that these two approaches would have main and interaction effects on perceived message effectiveness and pro-vaccine beliefs. A between-subjects 2 (trust-building appeal vs. no trust-building appeal) X 2 (pro-vaccine evidence vs. no pro-vaccine evidence) online survey experiment was conducted in December 2021 and January 2022 with United States parents/guardians of children <18 years old (n = 401). As hypothesized, trust and pro-vaccine evidence each had significant simple main effects on both outcomes. Analysis of variance showed a significant negative interaction effect of trust and pro-vaccine evidence on perceived message effectiveness [F(3, 394) = 6.47; η2 = 0.02, p = 0.002; 95% CI (0.01, 0.11)], supporting the dual-processing hypothesis. The interaction effect on pro-vaccine beliefs was also negative but not significant [F(3, 394) = 2.69; η2 = 0.01; p = 0.102; 95% CI (0.00, 0.03)]. Either highlighting evidence supporting vaccines or building trust in expert sources can influence parent vaccine support. Messages which include strong evidence supporting recommended behaviors may influence recommendation acceptance even among those with lower trust in expert sources and establishing trust may reduce the need to describe available evidence.

The role of intuition in CEO acquisition decisions

Based on dual-process theory, our research aims to address the relatively under-researched question “what is the role of intuition in managerial decision making?”, and we do so in the context of CEO acquisition decisions. While intuition may be commonly used by managers, there is limited empirical research on the role of intuition in strategic acquisition decisions. The contribution of this paper is in empirically developing a framework that analyses the roles of intuition from the perspective of CEOs’ lived experience, via systematic qualitative analysis. Using an inductive approach and retrospective reports, we focus on how CEOs use intuition in real-life strategic decisions. The results show that CEOs and top management team make sense and respond to their important strategic decisions using both intuition and analytical information adaptively and constructively to complete their decisions. More specifically, our framework reveals five roles of intuition: synthesizing, estimating, scanning, confirming and energizing. These roles cover both cognitive and affective elements of decision-making that are both abstract and concrete in nature. One corresponding novel contribution from this research is identifying the energizing role intuition plays. Further, we conduct three validation checks to establish the robustness of our findings and where we uncover the relative importance of the various roles of intuition. Finally, we note that although some of the roles of intuition have been identified in isolation in previous work, our study is the first one to adopt a holistic perspective.

Creative Tea Beverages as a New Tourism Attraction? Exploring Determinants of Tourists’ Repurchase Intention Using Dual Process Theory

This paper aimed to explore the potentiality of creative tea beverages as a new tourism attraction and the determinants of tourists’ repurchase intention towards creative tea beverages using the dual process theory. The structural–causal relationship among these constructs was examined using structural equation modeling with the data collected from 478 tourists with previous experience of consuming creative tea beverages. The results support the conclusion that the creativity and quantity of the information about tea beverages spread by electronic word-of-mouth significantly contributes to evoking consumers’ emotions, and the evoked emotions significantly influence consumers’ repurchase intention towards tea beverages. Furthermore, other-oriented face constructs also play a crucial role in determining consumers’ repurchase intention. Theoretical and marketing implications are also discussed in this paper.

The Brain Networks Basis for Deductive and Inductive Reasoning: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

Frontoparietal (FPN) and cingulo-opercular network (CON) control cognitive functions needed in deductive and inductive reasoning via different functional frameworks. The FPN is a fast intuitive system while the CON is slow and analytical. The default-interventionist model presents a serial view of the interaction between intuitive and analytic cognitive systems. This study aims to examine the activity pattern of the FPN and CON from the perspective of the default-interventionist model via reasoning. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate cingulo-opercular and frontoparietal network activities in 24 healthy university students during Raven and Wason reasoning tasks. Due to the different operation times of the CON and FPN, the reaction time was assessed as a behavioral factor. During Raven's advanced progressive matrices (RAPM) test, both the CON and FPN were activated. Also, with the increase in the difficulty level of the Raven test, a linear increase in response time was observed. In contrast, during the Wason's selection task (WST) test, only the activity of FPN was observed. The results of the study support the hypothesis that the default-interventionist model of dual-process theory provides an accurate explanation of the cognitive mechanisms involved in reasoning. Thus, the response method (intuitive/analytical) determines which cognitive skills and brain regions are involved in responding. The cingulo-opercular and fronto-parietal networks (FPNs) control cognitive functions and processes.The frontoparietal network is a fast intuitive system that utilizes short-time attention which is compatible with type 1 processing. In contrast, the cingulo-opercular network (CON) is an analytical time-consuming system that utilizes attention and working memory for a longer time, compatible with type 2 processing.The default-interventionist model of a dual-process theory states that our behaviors are controlled by type 1 processing unless we are confronted with novel and complex problems in which we have no prior experiences. The present study examined the activity of two task-based brain networks through performing diffrent type of reasoning tasks. Fronto-parietal and Cingulo-opercular are the two task-based brain networks that are responsible for cognitive control. These two brain networks direct the way to use cognitive skills and executive functions which are necessary to perform cognitive tasks especially higher-order ones as reasoning tasks. Since the two types of inductive and deductive reasoning tasks requier two different bottom-up and top-down cognitive control respectively, different cognitive skills would be needed which affect the activity of fronto-parietal and cingulo-opercular brain networks. Our results showed that through inductive reasoning task which examined by RAVEN, both of the fronto-parietal and cingulo-opercular brain networks were activated but deductive reasoning task which examined by Wason Selection Card test, just the fronto-parietal brain network was activated. It seems that in the case of deductive reasoninf task, there is a higher probability of errors which lead to giving less correct responses. Based on our results, subjects paid not enough attention to details, so had failure to update informations that leaded to responding with errors. Inactivity of cingulo-opercular network through dedeuctive reasoning task clearly showed that the bottom-up cognitive control did not happen successfully. As a result of that, information processing did not proceed properly.

Rationally irrational: When people do not correct their reasoning errors even if they could.

Why is it that sometimes people do not correct their reasoning errors? The dominating dual-process theories of reasoning detail how people (fail to) detect their reasoning errors but underspecify how people decide to correct these errors once they are detected. We have unpacked the motivational aspects of the correction process here, leveraging the research on cognitive control. Specifically, we argue that when people detect an error, they decide whether or not to correct it based on the overall expected value associated with the correction-combining perceived efficacy and the reward associated with the correction while considering the cost of effort. Using a modified two-response paradigm, participants solved cognitive reflection problems twice while we manipulated the factors defining the expected value associated with correction at the second stage. In five experiments (N = 5,908), we found that answer feedback and reward increased the probability of correction while cost decreased it, relative to the control groups. These cognitive control critical factors affected the decisions to correct reasoning errors (Experiments 2 and 3) and the corrective reasoning itself (Experiments 1, 4 and 5) across a range of problems, feedbacks, types of errors (reflective or intuitive), and cost and reward manipulations pre-tested and checked in five separate studies (N = 951). Thus, some people did not correct their epistemically irrational reasoning errors because they followed the instrumentally rational principle of the expected value maximization: They were rationally irrational. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Clean up Your Theory! Invest in Theoretical Clarity and Consistency for Higher-Impact Research

This essay starts from a concern that many empirical researchers undermine their rigorous empirical work by coupling it to unclear and inconsistent theory. I suggest this is because we underestimate the difficulty of achieving theoretical clarity and consistency. I illustrate the problem in detail by cataloging common ways we violate clarity and consistency in the articulation of theoretical constructs and relationships and illustrating these violations with examples from unpublished manuscripts. In addition, I draw on the management literature on theory writing as well as on the dual-process theory of cognition and the philosophy of science to identify and unpack three challenges to clear and consistent theory: the taxing cognitive effort required to turn ambiguous, associative intuition into logical arguments; the impossibility of achieving perfect clarity; and the existence of trade-offs between clarity and other valued qualities of theory, particularly generalizability. The implication is that researchers need to invest not just in empirical rigor but also, in theoretical rigor. Funding: The author’s research is supported in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Rationally blind? Rationality polarizes policy support for colour blindness versus multiculturalism.

Do White Americans prefer society to be 'colour-blind' by rising above racial identities, or 'multicultural' by openly discussing and considering them? We developed an ideology-rationality model to understand support for these diversity perspectives. Specifically, since people endorse a diversity perspective in line with their ideological values, we hypothesized that conservatism is related to a relative preference for colour blindness over multiculturalism. However, since colour blindness and multiculturalism are complex and multi-layered ideologies, we further hypothesized that the relationship between conservatism and a preference for colour blindness over multiculturalism is especially pronounced under higher levels of rationality. Results confirmed the hypotheses, either when rationality was operationalized within a dual process theory (Study 1, N = 496) or experimentally induced within a tripartite model of cognition (Study 2, N = 497). Higher levels of rationality guided White Americans high in conservatism towards a stronger preference for colour-blindness, but those low in conservatism towards a stronger preference for multiculturalism. These results suggest that among White Americans the endorsement of colour blindness versus multiculturalism stems from the interplay between ideological orientation and rationality and that rational considerations about racial policies may further divide rather than unify along ideological lines.

On On Folk Epistemology

ABSTRACT This commentary focuses on two main points in Gerken's remarkable book, On Folk Epistemology: his appeal to dual process theories of cognition and his alleged identification of some case judgments as normatively deficient. The first point leads to a friendly amendment of his proposal, the second to a more serious challenge.

Habits and Reflective Processes in COVID-19 Transmission-reducing Behaviors: Examining Theoretical Predictions in a Representative Sample of the Population of Scotland.

Based on theory, COVID-19 transmission-reducing behaviors (TRBs) should become habitual because of their frequent performance. Habits have been hypothesized to develop through reflective processes and, to act in conjunction with them. We investigated the existence, development, and consequences of TRB habits, for physical distancing, handwashing, and wearing face coverings. A representative sample of the Scottish population (N = 1,003) was interviewed by a commercial polling company in August-October 2020 and half were re-interviewed later. Measures included adherence, habit, personal routine tendency, reflective processes, and action control for three TRBs. Data were analyzed using general linear modeling, regression, and mediation analyses. Handwashing was most habitual; only face covering became more habitual over time. Routine tendencies predicted TRB habits, and adherence to handwashing and physical distancing. Those reporting greater habits reported better adherence, for physical distancing and handwashing, and this remained true after controlling for previous adherence. Reflective and habit processes independently predicted adherence for physical distancing and handwashing; only reflective processes were independently predictive for face covering. The relationship between planning and forgetting and adherence was partly direct, and partly mediated by habit. The results confirm hypotheses from habit theory including the role of repetition and of personal routine tendency in developing habits. They are consistent with dual processing theory in finding that both reflective and habit processes predict adherence to TRBs. Action planning partly mediated the relation between reflective processes and adherence. The COVID-19 pandemic has enabled the testing and confirmation of several theoretical hypotheses about habit processes in the enactment of TRBs.