The Influence Of Dialectical Thinking On The Sequential Decision-Making

Consumers usually pursue more than one goal. Sequential choices represent an opportunity for people to manage multiple goals and achieve peak experiences. Balancing in the sequential choices means that people choose behaviors that satisfy different goals in in two decisions. Highlighting in the sequential choices means that people choose behaviors that satisfy the same goal in two decisions. Besides, decisions are rarely made in isolation; the sequential choices are likely to be influenced by initial behaviors, leading to or goal-congruent behavior.Based on the past researches, we conclude that there are two future research directions. First, former researches have investigated the influences of contextual factors on the sequential choice, but how individual characteristics, especially thinking style, influence sequential choice deserves more attention. Second, some researches have studied the effect of dialectical thinking style on choice, but seldom researches concentrated on how dialectical thinking style, especially the priming effect of dialectical thinking style on sequential choice.When people think dialectically, they tend to be holistic, reconcile contradictions, and emphasize changes. Because dialectical thinking emphasizes reconciliation and constant changes, it may be able to increase people’s tolerance of differences, reduce extreme attitudes, and decrease extreme behaviors. Here we hypothesize that dialectical thinkers are more likely to choose balancing in the sequential choices. We test the hypotheses through three studies. Study1applied a dialectical thinking scale, and the results showed that those who have a capacity of dialectical thinking are more likely to choose balancing strategy. Study2adopted a priming manipulation and the results showed that the priming manipulation could also lead to the same result with the study1, which proved that the dialectical thinking can cause the difference in balancing. Study3changed the choice situations, and the study results also testify the assumption that the dialectical thinker are prone to balance in the two sequential choices.The results of this research have both theoretical implications and practical implications.