Failure to Detect Mismatches Between Intention and Outcome in a Simple Decision Task

A fundamental assumption of theories of decision-making is that we detect mismatches between intention and outcome, adjust our behavior in the face of error, and adapt to changing circumstances. Is this always the case? We investigated the relation between intention, choice, and introspection. Parti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScience (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 310; no. 5745; pp. 116 - 119
Main Authors Johansson, Petter, Hall, Lars, Sikström, Sverker, Olsson, Andreas
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 07.10.2005
The American Association for the Advancement of Science
Subjects
Age Differences
Analysis
Astrocytes
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Choice (Psychology)
Choice Behavior
Decision Making
Ecological competition
Esthetics
Face
Failure analysis
Female
Female animals
Females
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Intention
Male
Male animals
Mating behavior
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Miscellaneous
Neuroscience
Phenotypic traits
Psychology
Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology)
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psykologi
Psykologi (exklusive tillämpad psykologi)
Samhällsvetenskap
Sex chromosomes
Social Sciences
Sons
Synaptic transmission
Thinking
Human
Visual stimulus
Behavior
Face
Decision making
Theory
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Summary:A fundamental assumption of theories of decision-making is that we detect mismatches between intention and outcome, adjust our behavior in the face of error, and adapt to changing circumstances. Is this always the case? We investigated the relation between intention, choice, and introspection. Participants made choices between presented face pairs on the basis of attractiveness, while we covertly manipulated the relationship between choice and outcome that they experienced. Participants failed to notice conspicuous mismatches between their intended choice and the outcome they were presented with, while nevertheless offering introspectively derived reasons for why they chose the way they did. We call this effect choice blindness.
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ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1111709