Self-Distancing Reduces Probability-Weighting Biases

Front Psychol. 2018 Jun 13:9:611. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00611. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

We have abundant evidence that people exhibit biases in weighting probability information. The current study aims to examine whether self-distancing would reduce these biases. Participants in this study were instructed to use either a self-distancing or a self-immersing strategy to regulate their reasoning when they indicated their valuations of different lotteries. The results show that, compared to the baseline group, participants in the self-distancing group exhibited less distortion in the probability-weighting function, while those in the self-immersing group exhibited more distortion. These results offer evidence for the power of self-distancing in reducing probability-weighting biases.

Keywords: probability-weighting bias; probability-weighting function; self-distancing; self-immersing; valuation task.