The Mechanism And Corrections Of Biases In Judgment Of Experienced Utility Of Decision

In the background of constructing harmonious society, it is necessary to improve the national well-being. To answer the question why people usually couldn't get maximized happiness from their decision making and how to improve their happiness through improving the quality of their decision, using the concept of utility in economy, this paper investigated the mechanism of biases in judgment of experienced utility of decision and corrections from the information- processing view.Based on the Two-System View of Kahneman and the Accessibility Model of Emotional Self-Report of Robinson et al., this paper developed the Accessibility Model of Experienced Utility of Decision and tested this model by four studies which separately investigated the mechanism of biases in judgment of retrospective utility, corrections on the biases in judgment of retrospective utility, the mechanism of biases in judgment of predicted utility, and corrections on the biases in judgment of predicted utility.To investigate the mechanism of biases in judgment of retrospective utility, with four experiments which probed the "black box" of information processing in judgment of retrospective utility gradually and finally opened the "black box" directly by content analysis, Study 1 testified our model both indirectly and directly. Conclusions of Study 1 were showed as follows: (1) In short time span, which meant several weeks or shorter than several weeks, the judgment of retrospective utility was based on episodic memory information intuitively; (2) In long time span, which meant longer than several weeks, the judgment of retrospective utility was based on belief information intuitively; (3) In short time span, there were peak-end effect and duration neglect effect in the judgment of retrospective utility, while in long time span, there was just duration neglect, without peak-end effect.To investigate the corrections of biases in judgment of retrospective utility, with two experiments Study 2 testified our theoretical hypothesis that the correction of System 2 could make the judgment of retrospective utility avoid biases. Conclusions of Study 2 were showed as follows: (4) The correction of System 2 could make the judgment of retrospective utility in short time avoid duration neglect; (5) The correction of System 2 could make the judgment of retrospective utility in long time retrieve episodic memory information intuitively.To investigate the mechanism of biases in judgment of predictive utility, with four experiments which studied the information process of judgment of predicted utility using different experiment situations from different points of view, Study 3 testified our theoretical hypothesis. Conclusions of Study 3 were showed as follows: (6) The judgment of predicted utility was based on belief information intuitively; (7) The judgment of predicted utility was not influenced by predicted time; (8) In short time, there was difference between retrospective utility and predicted utility, while in long time there was no difference between them.To investigate the corrections of biases in judgment of predicted utility, with three experiments which studied the judgment of predicted utility of positive and negative situations in different reminding conditions and different time conditions with different methods, Study 4 testified our theoretical hypothesis. Conclusions of Study 4 were showed as follows: (9) The correction of System 2 could make the judgment of predicted utility avoid biases; (10) When the judgment of predicted utility was based on situation-specific belief, situation-specific concrete information provided by System 2 could reduce biases in judgment more effectively.Finally, the main conclusions and contributions of this paper were summarized and the research directions of this field in future were prospected. It was the main theoretical contributions of this paper that it developed the Accessibility Model of Experienced Utility of Decision which could interpret more research results than the Evaluation by Moments. It was the main practical contributions of this paper that it could provide certain suggestions on decision making for different agents such as society, enterprises and individuals.