Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Stock-flow (SF) systems involving the accumulation of a stock over time are pervasive in many areas of human life.However, people make consistent mistakes when regulating such systems, a phenomenon termed SF failure.We introduce holistic (global) versus analytic (local) processing as a cognitive mechanism underlying the hardly understood SF failure.Using a classic SF problem (department store task), we found that (a) solutions to SF problems were up to four times higher when a global task format highlighting global structure compared to a local task format highlighting local elements was used; (b) a more global processing style is connected to higher solution rates to the SF problem; and (c) procedurally priming participants with more global processing results in higher solution rates to the SF problem.In sum, our results point towards global-local processing as a basic explanation for SF failure.
Authors: Helen Fischer, Cleotilde González
Institution: Heidelberg University
Language: English
Subfield: General Decision Sciences
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Awards: G6541015203, G7623029582
OpenAlex ID: W2406632179