Journal article
The Alternative-Outcomes Effect
Journal of personality and social psychology, Vol.75(6), pp.1411-1423
12/1998
DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.75.6.1411
Abstract
Distributions of possible scenario outcomes were manipulated without changing the probabilities of focal outcomes (e.g., you hold 3 raffle tickets and 7 other people each hold 1 vs. you hold 3 and another person holds 7). Participants' probability estimates confirmed that beliefs about the objective likelihood of the focal outcomes were largely unaffected by the manipulations. As expected, however, nonnumeric certainty estimates (Studies 1-3), feelings of concern (Study 4), and choice behaviors (Study 5) revealed that the manipulations did affect subjective certainty. The consistent direction of this
alternative-outcomes effect
and findings from Study 6 suggest that comparisons between the focal outcome and the strongest alternative have an important influence on subjective certainty. A potential function for these comparison processes is described, and their similarities with social comparison and social judgment processes are discussed.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The Alternative-Outcomes Effect
- Creators
- Paul D Windschitl - Department of Psychology, University of IowaGary L Wells - Department of Psychology, Iowa State University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of personality and social psychology, Vol.75(6), pp.1411-1423
- Publisher
- American Psychological Association
- DOI
- 10.1037/0022-3514.75.6.1411
- ISSN
- 0022-3514
- eISSN
- 1939-1315
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/1998
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984213390902771
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