Failures to Integrate Causally Related Outcomes of Concurrent Decisions

Problem statement: Sometimes concurrent decisions are not integrated. Purpose of study: An experiment was conducted to investigate whether causally related options of concurrent decisions are not evaluated and therefore not chosen although their combinations are more attractive than single options. In two concurrent decisions participants chose between buying means-end related and unrelated pairs of everyday consumer products. Method: Sixteen undergraduates in one group were sometimes forced to choose the end (or the means), whereas 16 undergraduates in another group were always free to choose the end and means. Findings and results: In the forced choices, participants chose the means or ends presumably because they attended to the additional benefits. Conclusions: However, when free to make both choices participants only chose the ends and means 22% of the time. 28% of the choices were made of only an end or a means, and 50% of the choices were made of two unrelated options.