Dysphoria and decision making: Limited information use for evaluations of multiattribute targets.

Abstract

The hypothesis was that dysphoric relative to nondysphoric individuals use less available, relevant information in decision making because of reduced attentional resources. Dysphoric and nondysphoric Ss evaluated 70 jobs, each of which was described in terms of 5 dimensions (e.g., friendliness of co-workers); there were 5 possible values for each dimension. In both studies, dysphoric relative to nondysphoric Ss used a smaller subset of information, yet did not simplify what information was used and did not combine the information in a more simple manner. The limited information use was not due to dysphoric Ss' systematically ignoring certain dimensions and was evident in both initial and final portions of the task. Dysphoric Ss spent as much time and reported using as much information and investing as much effort as nondysphoric Ss. Reported effort alone was related to actual information use.