According to some current mainstream theories, when facing a choice, one usually follows the principle of maximizing personal interest and chooses the option that may bring him the largest profit. However, in real life, when making decisions, people in many situations are willing to choose to suffer an offered loss rather than always follow the principle of value maximization. Li et al once put forward and developed Worth-Based Choice model that can explain and forecast the action of choosing the option that brings loss on the surface. On the basis of consulting the Chinese concept of ‘pao’ and analyzing western literature concerning social exchange theory, cooperation theory and other relative theories, the author advanced the following hypothesis: compared with Value-Based Choice model, Worth-Based Choice model can bring individuals larger profit, both materially and spiritually. This study testified that hypothesis through three sub-studies: scenario study, laboratorial study and field study. The first study mainly contained two experiments under assumed conditions and initially verified that the worth-based choice model can bring individuals larger material and spiritual profit. The second adopted our self-developed task-based games (points-selecting and Cyber ball-tossing games) and found proofs on the dimension of action to further testify the hypothesis. The third is based on the development of a set of tests aimed at measuring the two kinds of decision-making tendency, and though a survey of salesmen in the real estate and pharmaceutical industry and relative studies, found proofs for the hypothesis on the dimension of real life. To sum up, this study has two achievements: it testified and developed a new decision-making model—Worth-Based Choice which reveals the psychological mechanism behind the concept that one can benefit from choosing an offered loss; through simulation experiments of inaction in human society and an exploration of different aspects of the concept of Worth-Based Choice, it helped us get a better understanding of the mechanism of Worth-Based Choice and the decision-making process of people.
修改评论