Narratives need not end well; nor say it all

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Decision Science
• Narrative Theory

Background:

• Current theories often require narratives to provide affective evaluation and comprehensive explanations of decision contexts.
• This can limit the applicability of narrative theory in situations of radical uncertainty.

Purpose of the Study:

• To challenge the necessity of affective evaluation and complete contextual explanation in narrative theory.
• To explore how fragmentary narrative schemata influence decision-making under uncertainty.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing evidence from studies on incidental learning.
• Analysis of how narrative structures impact cognitive processes and decision biases.

Main Results:

• Narrative schemata can bias decisions even when they are incomplete.
• These biases occur despite the schemata being insufficient for prediction and lacking explicit utility values.

Conclusions:

• Narrative theory should be revised to accommodate fragmentary narratives that do not necessitate affective evaluation or full contextual explanation.
• Fragmentary narratives play a significant role in decision-making, particularly in uncertain environments.