A CLUSTER-ANALYTIC APPROACH TOWARD IDENTIFYING THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF HUMAN DECISION-MAKING

This article argues that theoretical and empirical progress in the field of human decision making is hampered by researchers' preoccupation with a narrow range of decision contexts. Four studies were conducted to highlight the categorical diversity of human choice behavior and to illustrate how an awareness of this diversity can promote more rigorous decision theory. In Study 1, college students were asked to list the most important decisions they had ever made. A cluster analysis of these decisions revealed decision categories involving interpersonal relations, career, living arrangements, money, college, values, family, and cars. In Study 2, the most important decisions listed by residents of a retirement home included many of the same categories as those of college students and also included categories involving retirement and post-mortem arrangements. In Study 3, we asked historians to indicate the most important decisions that they believed had been made in the twentieth century. Decision categories that emerged included wartime, territorial, economic, and civil rights decisions. Finally, in Study 4 we examined the categories of decisions that researchers in decision making have investigated. The results revealed that decision-making research, in focusing on process analysis, has cast its attention to statistical reasoning, risky choice, gambles, and clinical judgment. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and research on decision-making processes.