Persuasive Communication - How Audiences Decide. 2nd Edition

24 Understanding Rational Decision Making

Not only do novices possess less well-developed schemata than experts, novices are also less

likely than experts to agree among each other about which decision criteria should comprise

their schemata.^180 In addition, novices are less likely than experts to use decision criteria con-

sistently when making a decision.^181 For example, when screening résumés for a supervisory

position, recruiters with less hiring experience are less consistent in applying their decision criteria

than more experienced recruiters.^182 When selecting hardware and software products, technical

novices not only agree less on decision criteria than technical experts, they also apply them less

consistently.^183

Consequences of Less Well-Developed Decision Schemata

What happens when audience members lack the appropriate schemata to make good decisions?

A survey of 43 U.S. Army offi cers and enlisted personnel who trained new platoon leaders reveals

that the root cause of many problems experienced by novice platoon leaders is their lack of

well-developed schemata. Novice platoon leaders are quickly overwhelmed by incoming informa-

tion and are slow to comprehend which information is important. They often fail to request and

communicate schema-relevant information. Without the appropriate schemata to support their

decision making, novice platoon leaders have diffi culty integrating information into a coherent

picture and specifying alternate courses of action (COAs).^184

Without the experts’ well-developed schemata, novice audiences are unable to make as many

inferences about the messages they read,^185 to ask as many pertinent questions,^186 or to recall as

much of the information they do obtain.^187 Ultimately, novices make decisions that are inferior to

those of experts.^188

When audiences lack or fail to activate the appropriate decision schema, they may rely more

on intuitive forms of decision making. For example, in one study, two groups of consumers

were given the same product advertisements. The fi rst group was asked to evaluate the products

advertised. The second group was asked to evaluate the entertainment value of each ad. Later,

both groups were asked to describe the content of the ads. The second group took longer to ver-

ify product information, generated fewer product-related thoughts, did not generate arguments

either for or against purchasing the products, and yet formed more positive attitudes toward the

products than the fi rst group. The authors conclude that the second group had not activated the

appropriate schemata and thus never fully comprehended the ads’ contents. Instead, the second

group had relied on its subjective or intuitive feelings toward the ads to guide its evaluation of

the products.^189

Without the appropriate schema, novice audiences may also rely more on emotional forms of

decision making. Given the task of prioritizing patients for psychotherapy, novice clinicians tend

to base their decisions on the apparent urgency of the patient’s condition, whereas expert clinicians

base their decisions on well-defi ned suitability criteria.^190 When making buy and sell decisions,

novice investors often make their decisions based on their emotional reactions to market infor-

mation. Expert fi nancial advisors from New York Stock Exchange brokerage fi rms, on the other

hand, tend to make such decisions based on predetermined investment criteria.^191 In a study of the

effects of emotions on consumer decision making, a mood manipulation affected the responses of

consumers with little knowledge about automobiles to car ads. In contrast, expert consumers were

unaffected by the mood manipulation and made their decisions based on the quality of the ads’

contents.^192

The differences between the schemata of expert and novice audiences can lead to big

differences in the way the two groups search for information. A study of expert and novice

home buyers choosing a mortgage reveals that a home-buyer’s level of expertise strongly