UC San Diego

This dissertation comprises three papers examining how the environment or context in which a decision is made affects choices.Chapter 1 investigates how the presence of seemingly irrelevant alternatives in an assortment can systematically affect people’s choices. We analyze a large dataset of real-world purchase decisions in an online marketplace and find evidence for the asymmetric dominance effect, whereby the inclusion of an option that is inferior to another one in the assortment leads to a preference shift towards the superior option. This work sheds light on where, when, and why this effect occurs. We identify a novel moderator of the effect – the ability to sample or experience the options available – and find evidence consistent with a perceptual mechanism underlying the effect. Chapter 2 explores how people make allocations between themselves and others in highly polarized environments (e.g., abortion, gun control, political parties) using a novel paradigm. In two large nationally representative samples, we asked participants to make lose-lose decisions: either subtract funds from their side of an issue or add funds to the opposing side. Strikingly, individuals were so averse to supporting opposing groups that they preferred to enact equivalent or greater financial harm to their own group instead – a preference that cannot be explained by existing theories. Instead, this work highlights the important role that identity plays in decision-making in polarized environments, underscoring the psychological barriers that impede the advancement of important causes. Finally, chapter 3 reveals how financial generosity is affected by crises, specifically the COVID-19 pandemic. While psychological theories have supported the possibility that both increased selfishness and increased generosity may emerge in these situations, we find convergent evidence from both a dataset capturing real-world donations and a 6-month longitudinal study that individuals exhibited greater financial generosity when their county experienced COVID-19 threat – a silver lining amidst the tragedy of the pandemic. Together, these three chapters demonstrate the important role that the environment of a choice can play in systematically affecting decision-making, in situations ranging from purchase decisions to charitable giving.