Causal versus diagnostic contingencies: On self-deception and on the voter’s illusion
Quattrone and Tversky ran two experiments on whether people choose actions that signal a good outcome even when the actions do not cause it. In the first, undergraduates held an arm in cold water before and after exercise, having been told that cold-water tolerance was linked to either longer or shorter life expectancy. In the second, undergraduates read one of two theories about which voters decide the margin of an election; only one let them believe they could influence like-minded people to vote, and more of them said they would vote under that theory, although their own vote had the same causal effect in both. The authors conclude that people select actions that are diagnostic of favourable outcomes even though the actions do not cause them.
Quattrone and Tversky ran two experiments on whether people choose actions that signal a good outcome even when the actions do not cause it. In the first, undergraduates held an arm in cold water before and after exercise, having been told that cold-water tolerance was linked to either longer or shorter life expectancy. In the second, undergraduates read one of two theories about which voters decide the margin of an election; only one let them believe they could influence like-minded people to vote, and more of them said they would vote under that theory, although their own vote had the same causal effect in both. The authors conclude that people select actions that are diagnostic of favourable outcomes even though the actions do not cause them.
Written from the abstract, library catalogue record.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Quattrone, G. A., & Tversky, A. (1984). Causal versus diagnostic contingencies: On self-deception and on the voter’s illusion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(2), 237-248. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.46.2.237.