High-stakes decisions do not require narrative conviction but narrative flexibility

Department

English

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2023

Abstract

We challenge Johnson et al.'s assumption that people reduce unclear situations to a single narrative explanation and that such reduction would be adaptive for decision-making under radical uncertainty. Instead, we argue that people imagine and maintain multiple narrative possibilities throughout the decision-making process and that this process provides cognitive flexibility and adaptive benefits within the proposed model.

Journal Title

Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Journal ISSN

0140525X

Volume

46

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1017/S0140525X22002606

Share

COinS