Self-Other Decision Making Differences The Effects Of Psychological Distance And Self-esteem

Self-other differences in decision making is a popular issue of decision making studies. Existing researches are mainly concerned about the decision outcomes, especially the risk preference. However, very few studies have explored self-other differences in the decision making process.In the present study, by using the information display board technology, we explore the process differences of self-other decision making, and how self-esteem influences such differences. The study includes two experiments. Experiment1focuses on risk preferences and decision process differences of80college students with different self-esteem levels between self decision and decision making for a general other. Experiment2manipulates psychological distance of others by personality similarity and separates others into similar other and dissimilar other. We introduce career decision making scenarios to compare self-other differences in decision process and attribute preferences. We also explore how the decision makers’ self-esteem level influences the processing of the risky attribute.The major findings were:(1) In both scenarios, no self-other differences had been found on search depth and search patterns. However, compared with decisions making for oneself, the average decision time was much longer when making decisions for a dissimilar other in career decision scenarios.(2) In career decision scenarios, the average clicks and processing time on the three socially prodominant attributes (i.e. salary, promotion chance, career stability) are higher when making decisions for dissimilar other than for oneself, but no differences were found between self and similar other.(3) In monetary decision scenarios, participants with the medium level of self-esteem had higher risk preference compared with those with high and low self-esteem level when deciding for oneself but not for a general other.(4) In career decision scenarios, participants with high and medium self-esteem levels paid more attention to the risky attribute when deciding for the similar and dissimilar other. No differences were found between self and others in participants with low self-esteem level.The results indicate that psychological distance is possibly one of the reasons leading to self-other decision differences. The change of psychological distance would influence the decision makers’attribute preferences and the average decision time, but not the information processing mode. Furthermore, the results of this study also support the idea that individuals with medium self-esteem level have higher risk preference and are more sensitive to risky attribute.