Here are two methods that people use to make choices. One method is to compare the options(可选择的物品) with each other and choose the best one. The other is to evaluate each option individually and then pick the best one. Experts are more likely to evaluate the options individually, while ordinary people tend to compare the options.
Researches show that it is easier for people to make choices when they are being compared. Imagine buying a new dictionary. You find out that a particular dictionary has 50,000 words in it. Suppose, though, that you find out that another dictionary only has 25,000 words in it. Now, you know that 50,000 words is a good number for a dictionary to have.
New research shows that when people compare options, they also get more confident in their judgments. To get participants in their studies in a mindset to make comparisons, researchers had people look at a complex picture and write down the similarities and differences between two halves of the picture. Other participants evaluated(评价) the picture without making comparisons. Previous work shows that this technique gets people to make comparisons in later tasks.
After that, participants were shown descriptions of three brands(品牌) of cell phones (labeled Brands A, B and C). They had a chance to study the descriptions. Later, they were shown fourteen of the characteristics they had seen and were asked whether those characteristics belonged to Brand B. With each response, participants were allowed to place a bet between 0 and 10 dollars based on how confident they were in their response. The higher the bet, the more confident the people were that they knew whether the characteristic belonged to Brand B. People who were put in a mindset to make comparisons were more confident in their judgments about the characteristics of the cell phones than people who did not make comparisons. Despite the difference in confidence, the people who made comparisons were not more accurate in their judgments than those who did not make comparisons.
This research suggests that we need to be careful when making decisions. On the one hand, we are quite likely to rely on comparing the options in order to make a choice. On the other hand, those comparisons will increase our feeling of confidence in the decision. So, we need to recognize that at least part of that confidence comes from the way the choice was made.
