Effects of social value orientation (SVO) and decision mode on controlled information acquisition—A Mouselab perspective

Publication date: January 2020Source: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 86Author(s): Maik Bieleke, David Dohmen, Peter M. GollwitzerAbstractInsights into the processes underlying observed decisions are crucial for a comprehensive understanding of behavior. We investigate how individual social value orientation (SVO) relates to controlled information acquisition and how this relationship may be governed by intuitive versus reflective decision modes. We measure controlled information acquisition with the process tracing tool Mouselab and demonstrate its potential for advancing research on social decision-making. In two experiments, participants worked on two consecutive SVO tasks, in which they allocated points between themselves and others. Information regarding the available distributions of points had to be actively acquired by moving the mouse cursor over corresponding boxes on the screen. We observed a stable relationship between SVO and controlled information acquisition in both experiments: less selfish participants acquired more information and made more other-oriented acquisitions, and this relationship showed up in both an intuitive and a reflective decision mode. However, participants in a reflective decision mode acquired more information, their acquisitions were more strongly other-oriented, and their decisions were more prosocial compared to participants in an intuitive mode. Taken together, our results advance research on SVO by showing that non-s...

Source: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology - November 1, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research