Keeping one's options open: The detrimental consequences of decision reversibility

a r t i c l e i n f o People generally prefer to have the opportunity to revise their decisions. Surprisingly however, research has shown that keeping one's options open yields lower satisfaction with the decision outcome (Gilbert & Ebert, 2002). Two studies aimed to gain more insight into the detrimental consequences of decision reversibility and the cognitive processes underlying decision reversibility. Building upon literature on goal fulfillment we hypothesized and found in a first experiment that as long as decisions are still open to change, accessibility of decision-related constructs is increased compared to neutral constructs. A second experiment demonstrated that decision reversibility undermines working memory capacity. Moreover participants experienced higher regret after having made a reversible decision, an effect that was mediated by decreased working memory capacity. The study set implies that reversible decisions yield lower working memory capacity because people continue to think about the, still relevant, choice options. In the end this might increase dissatisfaction with the decision and regret. People generally prefer decisions that can be revised at a later point in time (Gilbert & Ebert, 2002). Many individuals, for instance, tend to live together with their romantic partner for years before getting married, favor shops where they get the opportunity to return their goods, and give temporary contracts to new employees. All those examples may reflect peoples' proclivity to keep their options open rather than to make a final decision. Interestingly though, an experiment by Gilbert and Ebert (2002) showed that the opportunity to revise actually leads to lower levels of post-choice satisfaction. Accordingly, people have a preference for reversible decisions, but do not seem able to forecast its negative outcomes (Bullens, Förster, van Harreveld, & Liberman, in press). In the present research we will further examine the detrimental consequences of decision reversibility and try to gain more insight in what happens in people's minds when making reversible versus irreversible decisions. More specifically, we link decision reversibility to existing literature on goal fulfillment and demonstrate that reversible decisions put an extra strain upon peoples' cognitive resources as individuals appear to remain occupied with decisions until they become final and irreversible. Decisions as goals In many situations, people want or need to decide, and thus decisions can be conceptualized as goals that one attains (Liberman & Förster, 2006). From research on goals it is known that they stay active until they are attained. More …