Decision structuring in important real-life choices

Results from five studies of real-life decision making are compared. In these studies, participants consistently constrained the amount of information they considered to relatively few options and to a somewhat larger set of criteria. Over time, the number of options considered shrank, but the number of criteria used did not. People's intuitive "calibration" with the predictions of normative linear models is surprisingly good. Although there are effects of education and ability on the amount of information considered, different decision-making styles correlate mostly with affective reactions to, and subjective descriptions of, the approach to a specific decision. Implications for theoretical models of decision making are discussed.