Festinger revisitado: Sacrifício e argumentação como fontes de conflito na tomada de decisão

 

 

INÊS VALENTE ROSA (*)

MARC SCHOLTEN (**)

JOANA PAIXÃO CARRILHO (***)

 

 

RESUMO

É consensual na literatura que o nível de conflito sentido numa tomada de decisão influencia o modo como nós escolhemos e que este grau de conflito depende do tamanho de troca entre os atributos das opções do conjunto de escolha. Modelos tradicionais defendem que o conflito aumenta com o tamanho de troca, uma vez que são maiores as vantagens que temos de abdicar ao escolher uma opção em detrimento de outra (sacrifícios). No entanto, uma outra perspectiva é que o conflito depende dos argumentos à nossa disposição para escolher uma das opções: quanto menor for o tamanho de troca, mais fracos os argumentos e consequentemente maior o nível de conflito sentido na tomada da decisão.

O presente artigo demonstra como um modelo unificado de formação do conflito na tomada de decisão, o modelo de dupla mediação, concilia as diferentes perspectivas de forma integradora. A relação entre tamanho de troca e conflito é mediada pelos sacrifícios e pelos argumentos (em direcções opostas) e moderada por diversos factores, entre os quais a importância relativa dos atributos e a necessidade de justificar a escolha a outros.

Palavras-chave: Tomada de decisão, troca, conflito.

 

 

ABSTRACT

There is consensus in the literature that the level of conflict experienced in making a decision influences the way in which we choose and that this degree of conflict depends on the size of the tradeoff between the attributes of the options in the choice set. Traditional models argue that conflict increases with tradeoff size, because of the greater advantages that we have to forego in choosing one option instead of the other (sacrifices). However, another perspective is that the conflict depends on the arguments at our disposal to choose one of the options: The smaller the tradeoff, the weaker the arguments and consequently the higher the level of conflict in making the decision.

This article shows how a unified model of conflict formation in decision making, the double-mediation model, reconciles both perspectives. The relation between tradeoff size and conflict is mediated by sacrifices and arguments (in opposite directions) and moderated by several factors, among which the relative importance of the attributes and the need to justify the decision to others.

Key words: Decision making, tradeoff, conflict.

 

 

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(*) Psicóloga. E-Mail: inesrosa@sapo.pt.

(**) Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisboa. E-Mail: scholten@ispa.pt.

(***) Universidade Lusíada, Lisboa. E-Mail: joana carrilho@netcabo.pt.