Pattern-setting for improving risky decision-making

Self-control can be defined as making choices in accordance with long-term, rather than short-term, patterns of behavior. Rachlin (2016) suggested a novel technique to enhance self-control, by which individual choices carry the weight of a larger pattern of choices. This report describes a study of 169 college students who made repeated choices between two gambles. The better of the two gambles had a greater win probability but required waiting an uncertain amount of time. Some "patterned" subjects were forced to repeat their previous choices according to a schedule, while control subjects could choose freely on every trial. It was found that on free-choice trials, the patterned subjects chose the better gamble more often than controls. There was stronger evidence for such an effect appearing immediately than for it developing gradually from a process of learning over the course of the task. An additional condition in which subjects were forced to choose the better gamble yielded inconsistent results. Overall, the results support the use of pattern-setting as a strategy to improve decision-making.