We find a “matching effect” in policy evaluations. For behaviors seen as positive but voluntary (such as organ donation) people prefer policies that are framed as advantaging those who act positively rather than disadvantaging those who fail to do so. Conversely, for behaviors seen as...

Liberals and conservatives both express prejudice toward ideologically dissimilar others (Brandt et al., 2014). Previous work on ideological prejudice did not take advantage of evidence showing that ideology is multi-dimensional, with social and economic ideologies representing related but...

In this paper we test two hypotheses regarding magical thinking about the perceived likelihood of future events. The first is that people believe that those who ``tempt fate'' by failing to take necessary precautions are more likely to suffer negative outcomes. The second is the ``protection...

When making decisions, people sometimes deviate from normative standards. While such deviations may appear to be alarmingly common, examining individual differences may reveal a more nuanced picture. Specifically, the personality factor of need for cognition (i.e., the extent to which people...

In 5 experiments we show that choices between bundles of consumption goods exhibit a preference for ‘order’ that cannot be explained on the basis of utility for consumption itself. The first 3 experiments show that this order-preference is strong and produces robust violations of normative...

When making decisions, people sometimes deviate from normative standards. While such deviations may appear to be alarmingly common, examining individual differences may reveal a more nuanced picture. Specifically, the personality factor of need for cognition (i.e., the extent to which people...