Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rational decision making: balancing RUN and JUMP modes of analysis

  • Published:
Mind & Society Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Rationality in decision making is commonly assessed by comparing choice performance against normative standards. We argue that such a performance-centered approach blurs the distinction between rational choice and adaptive behavior. Instead, rational choice should be assessed with regard to the way individuals make analytic decisions. We suggest that analytic decisions can be made in two different modes in which control processes are directed at different levels. In a RUN mode, thought is directed at controlling the operation of a decision strategy. In the JUMP mode, the individual analyses the interpretation of the decision situation as well as the appropriateness of alternative strategies. We suggest that a decision should be considered “rational” when an individual is able to switch between these modes and balance their interaction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson NH (1971) Integration theory and attitude change. Psychol Rev 78:171–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Athay M, Darley JM (1981) Toward an interaction-centered theory of personality. In: Cantor N, Kihlstrom JF (eds) Personality, cognition and social interaction. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 281–308

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson JW (1957) Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. Psychol Rev 64:359–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beach LR, Mitchell TR (1978) A contingency model for the selection of decision strategies. Acad Manage Rev 3:439–449

    Google Scholar 

  • Betsch T (2005) Preference theory—an affect-based approach to recurrent decision making. In: Betsch T, Haberstroh S (eds) The routines of decision making. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, N.J, pp 39–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Betsch T, Glöckner A (2010) Intuition in judgment and decision making: extensive thinking without effort. Psychol Inq 21:279–294

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betsch T, Haberstroh S (2005) Research on the routines of decision making: advances and prospects. In: Betsch T, Haberstroh S (eds) The routines of decision making. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp 359–376

    Google Scholar 

  • Betsch T, Fiedler K, Brinkmann J (1998) Behavioral routines in decision making: the effects of novelty in task presentation and time pressure on routine maintenance and deviation. Eur J Soc Psychol 28:861–878

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betsch T, Haberstroh S, Glöckner A, Haar T, Fiedler K (2001) The effects of routine strength on information acquisition and adaptation in recurrent decision making. Organ Behav Hum Dec 84:23–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betsch T, Haberstroh S, Molter B, Glöckner A (2004) Oops, I did it again—relapse errors in routinized decision making. Organ Behav Hum Dec 93:62–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Camerer CF, Hogarth RM (1999) The effects of financial incentives in experiments: a review and capital‐labor‐production framework. J Risk Uncertain 19:7–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson D (1982) Rational animals. Dialectica 36:318–327

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards W (1954) The theory of decision making. Psychol Bull 51:380–417

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein S (2010) Demystifying intuition: what it is, what is does, and how it does it. Psychol Inq 21:295–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans JStBT (2008) Dual-processing accounts of reasoning, judgment, and social cognition. Annu Rev Psychol 59:255–278

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans JStBT (2010) Intuition and reasoning: a dual process perspective. Psychol Inq 21:313–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fazio RH (1990) Multiple processes by which attitudes guide behavior: the MODE model as an integrative framework. Adv Exp Soc Psychol 23:75–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiedler K (2001) Affective states trigger processes of assimilation and accommodation. In: Martin LM, Clore GL (eds) Theories of mood and cognition: a user’s guidebook. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp 85–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Fishbein M, Ajzen I (1974) Attitudes towards objects as predictors of single and multiple behavioral criteria. Psychol Rev 81:59–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flavell L (1979) Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: a new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. Am Psychol 34:906–911

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gigerenzer G, Todd PM, The ABC Research Group (1999) Simple heuristics that make us smart. Oxford University Press, Oxford

  • Gladwell M (2005) Blink: the power of thinking without thinking. Penguin, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Glöckner A, Betsch T (2008) Modelling option and strategy choices with connectionist networks: towards an integrative model of automatic and deliberate decision making. Judgm Dec Mak 3:215–228

    Google Scholar 

  • Haines BA, Moore C (2003) Integrating themes from cognitive and social cognitive development into the study of judgment and decision making. In: Schneider SL, Shanteau J (eds) Emerging perspectives on judgment and decision research. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 246–283

    Google Scholar 

  • Hertwig R, Ortmann A (2001) Experimental practices in economics: a methodological challenge for psychologists. Behav Brain Sci 24:383–451

    Google Scholar 

  • Hogarth RM (2010) The challenge of intuition. Psychol Inq 21:338–353

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman D, Slovic P, Tversky A (eds) (1982) Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein G (1999) Sources of power—how people make decisions. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Korsgaard C (2009) The activity of reason. Proc Address APA 83:23–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Kruglanski A, Gigerenzer G (2011) Intuitive and deliberate judgments are based on common principles. Psychol Rev 118:97–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Künzler R, Bakker CM (2001) Female preferences for single and combined traits in computeranimated stickleback males. Behav Ecol 12:681–685

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nisbett RE, Ross L (1980) Human inference and shortcoming of social judgment. Prentice-Hall, Englewood-Cliffs, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Payne JW, Bettman JR, Johnson EJ (1988) Adaptive strategy selection in decision making. J Exp Psychol Learn 14:534–552

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piaget J, Inhelder B (1951/1975) The origin of the idea of chance in children. London

  • Searle (2001) Rationality in action. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegler RS (1996) Emerging minds: the process of change in children’s thinking. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon HA (1955) A behavioral model of rational choice. Q J Econ 69:99–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich KE (2009) Distinguishing the reflective, algorithmic, and autonomous minds: is it time for a tri-process theory? In: Evans J, Frankish K (eds) In two minds: dual processes and beyond. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, pp 55–88

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich KE, West RE, Toplak ME (2011) The complexity of developmental predictions from dual process models. Dev Rev 31:103–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson TD, Schooler JW (1991) Thinking too much: introspection can reduce the quality of preferences and decisions. J Pers Soc Psychol 60:181–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Erfurt, Nordhaeuser Strasse 63, 99089, Erfurt, Germany

    Tilmann Betsch

  2. Department of Philosophy, University of Erfurt, Nordhaeuser Strasse 63, 99089, Erfurt, Germany

    Carsten Held

Authors
  1. Tilmann Betsch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Carsten Held
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tilmann Betsch.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Betsch, T., Held, C. Rational decision making: balancing RUN and JUMP modes of analysis. Mind Soc 11, 69–80 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-011-0097-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-011-0097-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation