Choice bracketing
Daniel Read, George Loewenstein and Matthew Rabin review research from many decision contexts showing that how people group several choices strongly affects what they do. Broad bracketing, which considers all the choices together, usually produces higher utility, but people often bracket narrowly even when broad bracketing is feasible. The article also examines what pushes people towards one approach or the other, and argues that in some situations narrower bracketing leads to better decisions.
Daniel Read, George Loewenstein and Matthew Rabin review research from many decision contexts showing that how people group several choices strongly affects what they do. Broad bracketing, which considers all the choices together, usually produces higher utility, but people often bracket narrowly even when broad bracketing is feasible. The article also examines what pushes people towards one approach or the other, and argues that in some situations narrower bracketing leads to better decisions.
Written from the abstract as shown on the publisher's record, read 2026-10-28.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Read, D., Loewenstein, G., & Rabin, M. (1999). “Choice bracketing.” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 19(1-3), 171-197. doi:10.1023/A:1007879411489 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007879411489