Intuitive Preference Research Articles

Preference for Intuition and Deliberation in Eating Decision-making: Scale validation and associations with eating behaviour and health.

Two distinct lines of research separately regard either deliberately regulated eating or intuitive eating as most beneficial for health. The present research aims to integrate these seemingly contradictory findings by investigating the relationships between Preference for Intuition and Deliberation in Eating Decision-making (E-PID) and subjective and objective health-related parameters using a newly developed scale. Study 1: online survey; Study 2: cross-sectional community cohort sample. Study 1 (N=699) assessed E-PID, intuitive, restrained, and external eating, motivation to eat healthily, domain-unspecific Preference for Intuition and Deliberation, and general self-control. Study 2 (N=1,212) assessed E-PID, positive eating, intention to eat healthily, eating behaviour, and objective health risk factors (BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting serum glucose, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides). Study 1 confirmed a two-factor structure and provided evidence for construct validity: A higher preference for intuition was positively related to intuitive eating, while a higher preference for deliberation was associated with increased dietary restraint. In Study 2, preference for deliberation was positively related to the intention to eat healthy, healthy eating behaviour, and health parameters. Preference for intuition was generally unrelated to health parameters, although a higher preference for intuition was related to a somewhat unhealthier eating pattern. Preference for intuition and deliberation when making food choices are two distinct decision-making styles: The former focuses on internal cues, while the latter focuses on cognitive regulation of food intake. Despite these differences, neither decision-making style was shown to be detrimental.

Urgent decision-making in extreme circumstances: Associations with cognitive reflection and with responses to moral dilemmas

Foi proposto que a tomada de decisões urgentes em circunstâncias extremas pode ser baseada em dois tipos de processamento de informações: afetivo e racional. Como o modelo de decisões urgentes é recente, o objetivo deste estudo foi determinar suas características e relações com variáveis relevantes. Utilizamos uma amostra intencional de 416 estudantes universitários de uma academia militar. Os resultados mostraram que a tomada de decisões urgentes em circunstâncias extremas está relacionada a preferências gerais por intuição ou deliberação, reflexão cognitiva e reação a dilemas morais pessoal altamente conflituosos. Notavelmente, a tomada de decisão urgente baseada na racionalidade foi positivamente associada à reflexão cognitiva e a uma forma utilitária de resolver dilemas morais pessoais de alto conflito. Além disso, tanto a tomada de decisões urgentes, tanto racionais como afetivas/emocionais, foram associadas à percepção da dificuldade em resolver dilemas morais pessoais de alto-conflito. O modelo de juízos urgentes em circunstâncias extremas pode ser útil porque contribui para descrever o perfil cognitivo e decisório óptimo para a seleção de recursos humanos em atividades que envolvem enfrentar contextos de alta incerteza onde a tomada de decisões rápidas é necessária, tais como tarefas realizadas por profissionais de resgate ou pessoal de combate.

Exploring the present and target academic English language needs of Iranian undergraduate students: a case at the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

Background: The content for courses for English for specific purposes (ESP) has been largely determined on the basis of the intuitive judgments and personal preferences of syllabus designers and teachers rather than a standard needs analysis. The present study was an attempt at assessing the current English language abilities of undergraduate students majoring in the medical sciences and identifying their target needs for academic success through quantitative and qualitative methods. Methods: The participants included 197 undergraduate students, 12 Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) teachers, and 15 content teachers from the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Data were collected through a target needs analysis, self-assessment questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. Results: Pronunciation, technical and general vocabulary knowledge, and use of bilingual dictionaries were regarded as ‘important’ and ‘very important’ target needs by the participants, though some significant differences in perceptions were found between content teachers and students. Writing skill, listening comprehension, and speaking were perceived as the weakest points in the students’ current level of ability. There was also a significant difference between the perception of TEFL teachers and students in assessing the students’ linguistic abilities. Furthermore, both students and TEFL teachers voiced their dissatisfaction with certain areas of ESP courses, such as an inadequate number of credits and heterogeneity of classes. Conclusion: To improve the outcome of ESP courses, they should be designed on the basis of a realistic appreciation of all stakeholders’ perceptions in the field, and they should be taught through the cooperation of both TEFL teachers and content teachers working together.

Gender role orientation, thinking style preference and facets of adult paranormality: A mediation analysis.

This study examines the extent to which masculine and feminine gender role orientations predict self-reported anomalous experiences, belief, ability and fear once relevant correlates including biological sex are controlled for. The extent to which rational versus intuitive thinking style preference mediates these relationships is also examined. Path analysis (n = 332) found heightened femininity directly predicts stronger intuitive preference plus more anomalous experiences, belief and fear with, additionally, intuitive preference mediating several gender role-paranormality relationships. By comparison, heightened masculinity directly predicts both thinking styles plus lower anomalous fear. The latter relationship is also shaped by the nature of mediators with (a) more anomalous experiences and belief associated with more anomalous fear and (b) either heightened rationality else more anomalous ability linked to, conversely, less anomalous fear. The extent to which findings support a gender (or social) role account of adult paranormality, together with methodological limitations and ideas for future research, is discussed.

Intuitive forecasting and analytical reasoning: does investor personality matter?

PurposeIn spite of an intuitive appeal regarding association between personality and investment efficacy, there is a dearth of empirical support for the effects of theoretically meaningful personality difference on intuitive and analytical ability, which further explains investment efficacy. The current study aims to explore this link using multi-method analysis.Design/methodology/approachIn Study 1, the experimental protocol captures intuitive responses of naïve investors in four different investment horizons and maps the findings with personality constituents of the Big Five (Costa and McCrae, 1992), while in Study 2, survey of active investors seeks their preference for intuition or deliberation (PID, Betsch, 2004) in decision-making, along with measuring their investment efficacy and analysing the results on the basis their personality Type A vs Type B.FindingsSubjects with lower extraversion tend to have superior forecasting accuracy for gold and dollar, while those with lower neuroticism have tendency of superior forecasting for dollar and Nifty index in mid-term investment. Further, in Study 2, the results indicate superior intuitive ability, analytical ability and investment efficacy of Type B investors.Originality/valueThe study is unique in two ways. One, it explores the role of personality in ambidextrous decision-making framework, where rationality and intuition iteratively operate in a parallel, yet synchronous, fashion. Two, the study attempts to examine the role of personality in the unique socio-cultural context of an emerging economy such as India with Eastern religious traditions, having strong implications on the personal characteristics of the decision agents.

Quest-religious orientation among church leaders in Australia: A function of psychological predisposition or openness to mystical experience?

Quest religious orientation among church leaders signifies a style of leadership committed to religious explorations more than to religious certainties. This study sets out to explore the extent to which quest religious orientation among religious leaders is a function of psychological predisposition (conceptualized in terms of psychological type theory) or a function of distinctive forms of religious experience (conceptualized in terms of Happold’s model of mysticism) among a sample of 1,265 church leaders who participated in the 2011 Australian National Church Life Survey. The data demonstrated that higher levels of mystical orientation were associated with psychological predisposition, involving extraversion, intuition, feeling and perceiving. After controlling for sex, age, education, denominational groups and psychological type, higher levels of mystical orientation were also associated with higher levels of quest religious orientation. Mystical orientation partly mediated the effect of intuition on question orientation, but psychological preferences (for intuition and for perceiving) and mystical orientation seemed independently to promote quest religious orientation. Thus, church leaders committed to religious explorations rather than to religious certainties seemed to have been shaped both by psychological predisposition and by distinctive forms of religious experience.

The Psychological Profile of Church of England Male Archdeacons at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century: Drawing on Psychological Type and Temperament Theory

AbstractRecent discussion and research has pointed to the changing functions of archdeacons within the Church of England as the role has become expanded to combine both the traditional statutory functions with flexible and visionary leadership skills within a changing church. This study draws on data collected in 2009 from 186 active and retired male archdeacons in order to assess the psychological profile established by that time. Compared with the psychological profile of 626 clergymen, male archdeacons were much more likely to prefer the SJ temperament (60 per cent compared with 31 per cent), a temperament ideally suited for effective administration of the statutory functions. As a consequence, preference for intuition was lower among male archdeacons (38 per cent compared with 62 per cent), as was preference for perceiving (9 per cent compared with 32 per cent), qualities core for flexibility and visionary leadership.

Dissecting the expanded cognitive reflection test: an item response theory analysis

ABSTRACTThis study presents a psychometric evaluation of the Expanded Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT7) based on item response theory. The participants (N = 1204) completed the CRT7 and provided self-reported information about their cognitive styles through the Preference for Intuition and Deliberation Scale (PID). A two-parameter logistic model was fitted to the data to obtain the item difficulty and discrimination parameters of the CRT7. The results showed that the items had good discriminatory power (αs = .80 − 2.92), but the range of difficulty was restricted (βs ranged from −.60 to .32). Moreover, the CRT7 showed a pattern of correlations with the PID which was similar to that of the original CRT. When taken together, these results are evidence of the adequacy of the CRT7 as an expanded tool for measuring cognitive reflection; however, one of the newer items (the pig item) was consistently problematic across analyses, and so it is recommended that in future studies it should be removed from the CRT7.

Liking goes with liking: An intuitive congruence between preference and prominence.

In a series of 8 experiments, we demonstrate the existence of a "labeling effect" wherein people intuitively relate preferred choices to prominently labeled cues (such as heads as opposed to tails in a coin toss) and vice versa. Importantly, the observed congruence is asymmetric-it does not manifest for nonprominent cues and nonpreferred choices. This is because the congruence is driven by a process of evaluative matching: prominent cues are liked, but nonprominent cues are neutral or at most slightly negative in contrast. When we test prominent, yet truly negatively labeled cues, we indeed find a matching with less liked products. We discuss the theoretical contributions to the study of preferences and decision making, as well as demonstrate the practical implications to researchers and practitioners by using this process to assess intuitive preferences and reduce the compromise effect. (PsycINFO Database Record

Preference modeling by exploiting latent components of ratings

Understanding user preference is essential to the optimization of recommender systems. As a feedback of user’s taste, the rating score can directly reflect the preference of a given user to a given product. Uncovering the latent components of user ratings is thus of significant importance for learning user interests. In this paper, a new recommendation approach was proposed by investigating the latent components of user ratings. The basic idea is to decompose an existing rating into several components via a cost-sensitive learning strategy. Specifically, each rating is assigned to several latent factor models and each model is updated according to its predictive errors. Afterward, these accumulated predictive errors of models are utilized to decompose a rating into several components, each of which is treated as an independent part to further retrain the latent factor models. Finally, all latent factor models are combined linearly to estimate predictive ratings for users. In contrast to existing methods, our method provides an intuitive preference modeling strategy via multiple component analysis at an individual perspective. Meanwhile, it is verified by the experimental results on several benchmark datasets that the proposed method is superior to the state-of-the-art methods in terms of recommendation accuracy.

Describing the Process of Adopting Nutrition and Fitness Apps: Behavior Stage Model Approach.

BackgroundAlthough mobile technologies such as smartphone apps are promising means for motivating people to adopt a healthier lifestyle (mHealth apps), previous studies have shown low adoption and continued use rates. Developing the means to address this issue requires further understanding of mHealth app nonusers and adoption processes. This study utilized a stage model approach based on the Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM), which proposes that people pass through qualitatively different motivational stages when adopting a behavior.ObjectiveTo establish a better understanding of between-stage transitions during app adoption, this study aimed to investigate the adoption process of nutrition and fitness app usage, and the sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics and decision-making style preferences of people at different adoption stages.MethodsParticipants (N=1236) were recruited onsite within the cohort study Konstanz Life Study. Use of mobile devices and nutrition and fitness apps, 5 behavior adoption stages of using nutrition and fitness apps, preference for intuition and deliberation in eating decision-making (E-PID), healthy eating style, sociodemographic variables, and body mass index (BMI) were assessed.ResultsAnalysis of the 5 behavior adoption stages showed that stage 1 (“unengaged”) was the most prevalent motivational stage for both nutrition and fitness app use, with half of the participants stating that they had never thought about using a nutrition app (52.41%, 533/1017), whereas less than one-third stated they had never thought about using a fitness app (29.25%, 301/1029). “Unengaged” nonusers (stage 1) showed a higher preference for an intuitive decision-making style when making eating decisions, whereas those who were already “acting” (stage 4) showed a greater preference for a deliberative decision-making style (F4,1012=21.83, P<.001). Furthermore, participants differed widely in their readiness to adopt nutrition and fitness apps, ranging from having “decided to” but not yet begun to act (stage 2; nutrition: 6.88%, 70/1017; fitness: 9.23%, 95/1029) to being “disengaged” following previous adoption (stage 5; nutrition: 13.77%, 140/1017; fitness: 15.06%, 155/1029).ConclusionsUsing a behavior stage model approach to describe the process of adopting nutrition and fitness apps revealed motivational stage differences between nonusers (being “unengaged,” having “decided not to act,” having “decided to act,” and being “disengaged”), which might contribute to a better understanding of the process of adopting mHealth apps and thus inform the future development of digital interventions. This study highlights that new user groups might be better reached by apps designed to address a more intuitive decision-making style.

Closing your eyes to follow your heart: Avoiding information to protect a strong intuitive preference.

Rationally, people should want to receive information that is costless and relevant for a decision. But people sometimes choose to remain ignorant. The current paper identifies intuitive-deliberative conflict as a driver of information avoidance. Moreover, we examine whether people avoid information not only to protect their feelings or experiences, but also to protect the decision itself. We predict that people avoid information that could encourage a more thoughtful, deliberative decision to make it easier to enact their intuitive preference. In Studies 1 and 2, people avoid learning the calories in a tempting dessert and compensation for a boring task to protect their preferences to eat the dessert and work on a more enjoyable task. The same people who want to avoid the information, however, use it when it is provided. In Studies 3-5, people decide whether to learn how much money they could earn by accepting an intuitively unappealing bet (that a sympathetic student performs poorly or that a hurricane hits a third-world country). Although intuitively unappealing, the bets are financially rational because they only have financial upside. If people avoid information in part to protect their intuitive preference, then avoidance should be greater when an intuitive preference is especially strong and when information could influence the decision. As predicted, avoidance is driven by the strength of the intuitive preference (Study 3) and, ironically, information avoidance is greater before a decision is made, when the information is decision relevant, than after, when the information is irrelevant for the decision (Studies 4 and 5). (PsycINFO Database Record

IAT, consumer behaviour and the moderating role of decision-making style: An empirical study on food products

This article discusses the reasons why the study of consumer preferences requires indirect measures. Particularly, the research is focused on the use of the Implicit Association Test (IAT).The main aim of the present research is to verify the usefulness of the IAT in situation of ambivalent attitudes, such as in the food domain. On the basis of the relationship between interest/motivations and visual attention, the first study explores the effect of implicit associations on consumers’ visual behaviour on food labels. Moreover, the predictive and incremental validities of the IAT over traditional self-report measures on subjects’ intention to buy were tested in the specific field of food purchases, where attitudes can be ambivalent. Finally, the role of preference for intuition or deliberation in the decision-making process as a moderator of the relationship between the IAT score and the intention to buy was assessed. The second and the third studies aim to verify the same moderation pattern in real behavioural choices between tasty/healthy foods and between different food brands.Overall, the results (1) show the effect of implicit (and not explicit) associations on the way in which consumers read the information on food packaging; (2) demonstrate that the IAT enhances the understanding of consumer preference, intention to buy, and choices among different products, especially in domains where attitudes could be ambivalent; and (3) support the moderating role of the decision-making style. Overall, the research supports the employment of the IAT in consumer research.

Drawn towards what others seem to like: Implicit preference for objects and people looked at with a duchenne smile

People tend to like objects that are looked at by others, especially if the person looking at the object expresses a positive emotion. But not all positive emotions are equal. We investigated the effect of third party gazing while expressing subtle positive emotions on perceivers’ subsequent preferences and evaluations of objects and people. In two studies participants saw faces looking at target objects and people either with a Duchenne, a non-Duchenne smile, or a neural expression. Participants first indicated gaze direction and later reported intuitive target preference and evaluated the targets. Results show a preference for target stimuli that were smiled at with a Duchenne smile as opposed to when they were looked at with a non-Duchenne smile or a neutral expression. More explicit evaluations of the target stimuli were not affected by the type of facial expression.

The adaptive decision-making, risky decision, and decision-making style of Internet gaming disorder

BackgroundPersistent gaming, despite acknowledgment of its negative consequences, is a major criterion for individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD). This study evaluated the adaptive decision-making, risky decision, and decision-making style of individuals with IGD. MethodsWe recruited 87 individuals with IGD and 87 without IGD (matched controls). All participants underwent an interview based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th Edition) diagnostic criteria for IGD and completed an adaptive decision-making task; the Preference for Intuition and Deliberation Scale, Chen Internet Addiction Scale, and Barratt Impulsivity Scale were also assessed on the basis of the information from the diagnostic interviews. ResultsThe results demonstrated that the participants in both groups tend to make more risky choices in advantage trials where their expected value (EV) was more favorable than those of the riskless choice. The tendency to make a risky choice in advantage trials was stronger among IGD group than that among controls. Participants of both groups made more risky choices in the loss domain, a risky option to loss more versus sure loss option, than they did in the gain domain, a risky option to gain more versus sure gain. Furthermore, the participants with IGD made more risky choices in the gain domain than did the controls. Participants with IGD showed higher and lower preferences for intuitive and deliberative decision-making styles, respectively, than controls and their preferences for intuition and deliberation were positively and negatively associated with IGD severity, respectively. ConclusionsThese results suggested that individuals with IGD have elevated EV sensitivity for decision-making. However, they demonstrated risky preferences in the gain domain and preferred an intuitive rather than deliberative decision-making style. This might explain why they continue Internet gaming despite negative consequences. Thus, therapists should focus more on decision-making styles and promote deliberative thinking processes to mitigate the long-term negative consequences of IGD.

Contextual intelligence behaviors of female hospital managers in the United States

ABSTRACTHealthcare is a dynamic and challenging work environment with high levels of ambiguity and volatility. Leadership behaviors and models are needed that present a new framework for leadership behaviors in this type of environment. Contextual intelligence (CI) has been suggested as a useful and viable solution to leading in turbulent environments. This investigation explored the frequency of CI behaviors of female healthcare managers from 13 different hospitals. 474 females healthcare managers’ demographic data, including Myers–Briggs Type Indicator confirmed personality preference, were administered the Contextual Intelligence Profile (CIP), which rates the frequency 12 CI behaviors are demonstrated (0 = never to 6 = always). Internal consistency of the CIP was α = .92 and Exploratory Factor Analysis organized the behaviors into three factors (Hindsight, Insight, and Foresight). Three CI behaviors are practiced with very high frequency. Female healthcare managers with a preference for Extroversion (E) demonstrated eight CI behaviors (67%) more often than their counterparts with a preference for Introversion (I); and those with a preference for Intuition (N) demonstrated seven CI behaviors (58%) more often than their counterparts with a preference for Sensing (S). Our findings indicate that female healthcare managers practice CI with some frequency; and certain personality preferences (E/N), education level, and minority status may contribute to greater practice frequency of CI behaviors. However, certain behaviors, primarily those from Insight, were practiced with much lower frequency. Therefore, leadership development programing might want to consider including CI behaviors to enhance overall CI for leaders and managers in turbulent environments.

Discrepancies between multicriteria decision analysis-based ranking and intuitive ranking for pharmaceutical benefit-risk profiles in a hypothetical setting.

Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been generally considered a promising decision-making methodology for the assessment of drug benefit-risk profiles. There have been many discussions in both public and private sectors on its feasibility and applicability, but it has not been employed in official decision-makings. For the purpose of examining to what extent MCDA would reflect the first-hand, intuitive preference of evaluators in practical pharmaceutical assessments, we conducted a questionnaire survey involving the participation of employees of pharmaceutical companies. Showing profiles of the efficacy and safety of four hypothetical drugs, each respondent was asked to rank them following the standard MCDA process and then to rank them intuitively (i.e. without applying any analytical framework). These two approaches resulted in substantially different ranking patterns from the same individuals, and the concordance rate was surprisingly low (17%). Although many respondents intuitively showed a preference for mild, balanced risk-benefit profiles over profiles with a conspicuous advantage in either risk or benefit, the ranking orders based on MCDA scores did not reflect the intuitive preference. Observed discrepancies between the rankings seemed to be primarily attributed to the structural characteristics of MCDA, which assumes that evaluation on each benefit and risk component should have monotonic impact on final scores. It would be difficult for MCDA to reflect commonly observed non-monotonic preferences for risk and benefit profiles. Possible drawbacks of MCDA should be further investigated prior to the real-world application of its benefit-risk assessment.

Unpacking Decision Domains – Commentary on “Domain-Specific Preferences for Intuition and Deliberation in Decision Making”

Opposing the idea that individual preferences for decision styles (intuitive vs. deliberative) are relatively stable across decision domains, Pachur and Spaar (2015) show that individuals prefer different decision styles depending on the domain of the decision (e.g., mate choice vs. buying electronics). In this commentary, we seek to expand upon these results by considering why individuals might favor one style over another across different domains. Drawing upon previous work, we suggest that the characteristics related to the structure of the environment (i.e., pattern of information available) and individual-based factors (e.g., expertise, importance of decision, risk perception) can help distinguish different decision domains. Moreover, we suggest that these differences can help uncover how different decision domains engender different decision styles.

Understanding Farmers’ Decision-Making in Agricultural Water Fee Payment in China: The Role of Mental Accounting

To better understand farmers’ refusal to pay agricultural water fees under the current policy in rural China and their corresponding negative emotions, this paper applies mental accounting, a behavioral economics framework, to explore how the governmental policies of reform of rural taxes and fees, direct agricultural subsidy programs, and agricultural water fees individually influence farmers’ decisions in paying the agricultural water fees. Using fieldwork data from 577 farmers and 20 water managers in Sichuan, we explore farmers’ information processing regarding paying agricultural water fees via three sequential mental accounting processes, with the associated underlying principles and measures behind each process. We find that the information processing in three mental accounting scenarios related to the agricultural water fee elucidates farmers’ observed behaviors in rural China. Generally, in the three mental accounting scenarios, two conditional intuitive expectations and nine conditional intuitive preferences are formed; however, the conditions of those expectations or preferences cannot be matched with the facts due to the reform of rural taxes and fees, the direct agricultural subsidy programs, and the internal attributes of agricultural water fee, which interpret those negative behaviors in rural China. Additionally, this paper offers a view into how previous policies create negative psychological externalities (such as farmers’ psychological dependence on the government) through mental accounting to negatively influence agents’ subsequent decision-making; it highlights the significance of underlying mental factors and information processing of negative behaviors in policymaking for managing or conserving common pool resources.

Re-Biased Search: Managing Intuitive Preferences Over Time

We study organizational search in the presence of intuitive biases. Drawing from work on the psychology of human decision making, we construe biases as unjustified preferences that arise due to automatic, spontaneous thinking. This property of decision making gives rise to a mechanism we label generative recurrence. Present this mechanism, unjustified preferences produce two opposing effects on organizational adaptation: they curb excessive experimentation but at the expense of knowledge accumulation. In the context of organizational search, these regularities allow behavioral treatments to strategically leverage the value of biases. Specifically, our results suggest that re-biasing (adopting the opposite bias) often dominates both de-biasing (eliminating the bias) as well as consistently unbiased search. Our paper provides evidence that managing rather than eliminating biases can be an effective instrument of behavioral strategy.