Journal of Judgment and Decision Making
Monday, April 5th, 2010I recently found the Journal of Judgment and Decision Making. Access to full content is free. It covers many practical aspects of decision-making and provides designable insights. For example, in the new article, You Don’t Want to Know What You are Missing, the authors clearly demonstrate that when making a decision the more information we have about near-term benefits the less like we are to chose an alternative with the greatest long-term benefits. They put a sharper point to it:
“The present study reveals that, under the circumstances observed here, withholding information about local rewards from decision-makers can actually facilitate long-term optimal choice. “
Withholding information of course is just one option and might not be the best. Delaying it until longer-term options have been examined is an alternative. No matter, this is just the type of insights cognitive designers seek and the journal appears to be full of them!