The construct-behavior gap in behavioral decision research: A challenge beyond replicability

Psychological Review
Michel Regenwetter, Maria M Robinson

Abstract

Behavioral decision research compares theoretical constructs like preferences to behavior such as observed choices. Three fairly common links from constructs to behavior are (1) to tally, across participants and decision problems, the number of choices consistent with one predicted pattern of pairwise preferences; (2) to compare what most people choose in each decision problem against a predicted preference pattern; or (3) to enumerate the decision problems in which two experimental conditions generate a 1-sided significant difference in choice frequency 'consistent' with the theory. Although simple, these theoretical links are heuristics. They are subject to well-known reasoning fallacies, most notably the fallacy of sweeping generalization and the fallacy of composition. No amount of replication can alleviate these fallacies. On the contrary, reiterating logically inconsistent theoretical reasoning over and again across studies obfuscates science. As a case in point, we consider pairwise choices among simple lotteries and the hypotheses of overweighting or underweighting of small probabilities, as well as the description-experience gap. We discuss ways to avoid reasoning fallacies in bridging the conceptual gap between hypoth...Continue Reading

Citations

Jul 19, 2019·Psychological Science·Junyi DaiRalph Hertwig
Dec 24, 2019·The Spanish Journal of Psychology·Sanghyuk ParkMichel Regenwetter
Dec 24, 2019·The Spanish Journal of Psychology·Michel Regenwetter, Maria M Robinson
Jul 13, 2019·Memory & Cognition·Jack H WilsonAmy H Criss
Apr 11, 2019·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Ralph HertwigRui Mata
Jul 25, 2019·Annual Review of Psychology·Baruch Fischhoff, Stephen B Broomell
Nov 17, 2020·Experimental Economics·Ilke Aydogan, Yu Gao
Apr 9, 2019·Journal of Mathematical Psychology·Daniel W Heck, Clintin P Davis-Stober
Nov 13, 2018·Computers & Operations Research·Bart SmeuldersFrits C R Spieksma
Oct 21, 2021·PLoS Computational Biology·Folco PanizzaGiorgio Coricelli
Dec 8, 2021·Perspectives on Psychological Science : a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science·Ralph Hertwig, Dirk U Wulff

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