Resumen

SCHOLTEN, Marc  y  CARRILHO, Joana Paixão. Festinger revisitado: Sacrifício e argumentação como fontes de conflito na tomada de decisão. Aná. Psicológica [online]. 2006, vol.24, n.2, pp.167-177. ISSN 0870-8231.

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.

Palabras clave : Decision making; tradeoff; conflict.

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