Numeracy as a precursor to pro-social behavior: The impact of numeracy and presentation format on the cognitive mechanisms underlying donation decisions
Journal Title: Judgment and Decision Making - Year 2011, Vol 6, Issue 7
Abstract
Donation requests often convey numerical information about the people in need. In two studies we investigated the effects of numeracy and presentation format on the underlying affective and cognitive mechanisms of donation decisions. In Study 1, participants were presented with information about a victim in need, either in a frequency format or in a percentage format. In Study 2, we manipulated the identifiability and number of target victims. Our results demonstrate that donations of individuals lower in numeracy were more susceptible to changes in numeric presentation format than those higher in numeracy. Importantly, the underlying mechanisms for donations differed by numeracy. Whereas the mental image of the victim influenced donation decisions of less numerate people only, the estimated impact of a donation was positively correlated with donation amounts for both more and less numerate individuals.
Authors and Affiliations
Stephan Dickert, Janet Kleber, Ellen Peters, and Paul Slovic
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP677850
- DOI -
- Views 104
- Downloads 0
The effects of anticipated regret on risk preferences of social and problem gamblers
Anticipated regret is an important determinant in risky decision making, however only a few studies have explored its role in problem gambling. This study tested for differences in the anticipation of regret among social...
Modeling option and strategy choices with connectionist networks: Towards an integrative model of automatic and deliberate decision making
We claim that understanding human decisions requires that both automatic and deliberate processes be considered. First, we sketch the qualitative differences between two hypothetical processing systems, an automatic and...
The relationship between intertemporal choice and following the path of least resistance across choices, preferences, and beliefs
The degree to which individuals prefer smaller sooner versus larger delayed rewards serves as a powerful predictor of their impulsivity towards a number of different kinds of rewards. Here we test the limits of its predi...
Relative thinking in consumer choice between differentiated goods and services and its implications for business strategy
The article shows that when people consider differentiated goods or services that differ in price and quality, they exhibit a decision-making bias of “relative thinking”: relative price differences affect them even when...
Why are gainers more risk seeking
The phenomenon that prior gains may increase people’s willingness to accept risky gambles is named as the house money effect (Thaler and Johnson, 1990). Many studies have shown that the “house money effect” is a robust p...