Is Worth-based Choice Heuristic Decision Or Analytical Decision?

In classical decision theory,people are completely rational,and individuals' decision making is guided by the principle of value maximizing(VM).Thus,the "value-based choice" model is proposed.In 2012,Shu Li proposed the "worth-based choice" model to describe the phenomenon that individuals violate the principle of VM in the decision-making process—accepting that suffuring a loss.In this model,individuals can generate a potential ficitonal dimension when making a decision to assign a delayed utility(worth)to the optins on the dimension,and to make a worth-based choice.Studys showed that Chinese participants generally have a tendency to make a worth-based choice,and agree with " suffering a loss is good fortune".Does it follow the principle of equate-to-differentiate,which comes from the heuristic processing of decision makers? Or is the result of individual's deliberational analytical processing? To verify which is the processing mechanism of worth-based choice ——heuristic processing or analytical processing,the current paper presents 4 studies.Study 1 used cognitive load to verify the processing mechanism of worth-based choice.60 college students were selected,and randomly assigned to the high-level cognitive load group and the low-level cognitive load group,with 30 people in each group.Both participants in two groups completed 24 decision-making scenarios trials separately.In each trial,the participants in the high-level cognitive load group need to remember a sequence of 7 different numbers and letters,and the participants in the low-level cognitive load group need to remember a sequence of 7 same numbers or letters.Results showed that participants with high-level cognitive load made more worth-based choice compare to participants with low-level cognitive load.Study 2 used time pressure to verify the processing mechanism of worth-based choice.60 college students were selected,and randomly assigned to the time stress group and the timeless stress group,with 30 people in each group.Both participants in two groups completed 23 decision-making scenarios trials separately.Results indicated that participants with the time stress made more worth-based choice compared to participants with the timlesse stress.Study 3 used emotional valence to verify the processing mechanism of worth-based choice.60 college students were selected,and randomly assigned to the positive emotion group and the negative emotion group,with 30 people in each group.Both participants in two groups completed 23 decision-making scenarios trials separately.Results showed that participants with positive emotion made more worth-based choice compare to participants with negative emotion.Study 4 carried out eye movement study to verify the processing mechanism of worth-based choice.35 college students were selected,and all participants completed 72 decision-making scenarios trials.Using the eye tracker to record the participants' fixation times,total fixation time and pupil diameter when making a decision.The results indicated that compared with the value-based choice,participants made significantly more fixations when making worth-based choice,and there was no significant difference in total fixation time and pupil diameter.To sum up,the results of this study suggested that to some extent,the worth-based choice depends on heuristic processing,which has enriched and supplemented related theoretical models.It also inspires and guides people to make decisions that meet social norms to a certain extent.