Procedural influences on judgments and behavioral decisions

Individuals' decisions are not only influenced by their immediate objective and the relevance of the available information to the attainment of this objective. When several different cognitive procedures could be used to make a decision, the nature of this decision can depend on the procedure that happens to be used. The selection of this procedure, which might come into play at different stages of cognitive functioning, can be affected by factors that are totally irrelevant to the judgment or decision to be made or to the goal that is being pursued. In fact, procedures that have been employed in one situation can influence behavior in a quite different situation in the pursuit of a quite unrelated objective. Examples of these effects are reviewed and interpreted in terms of three basic principles of cognitive functioning that pertain to cognitive efficiency, knowledge accessibility and the impact of subjective experience.