Dissertation Marloes Rothengatter
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Tilburg University Insights in cognitive patterns Rothengatter, Marloes Publication date: 2016 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Rothengatter, M. (2016). Insights in cognitive patterns: Essays on heuristics and identification. CentER, Center for Economic Research. 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Download date: 27. sep. 2021 Insights in cognitive patterns: Essays on heuristics and identification Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan Tilburg University op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. E.H.L. Aarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de aula van de Universiteit op woensdag 7 september 2016 om 14.00 uur door Marloes Rothengatter geboren op 18 juni 1980 te Drunen Promotor: Prof. Dr. Arjen van Witteloostuijn. Promotiecommissie: Prof. Dr. Geert M. Duijsters Dr. Daniella P. Blettner Dr. Marc E. Esteve Dr. Jeroen G. Kuilman To Siebe, always highly significant Table of contents CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY ................................................................................................................. 2 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................................................... 2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND DISSERTATION STRUCTURE .............................................................................................. 5 CHAPTER 2 A BIAS IN HEURISTICS: RATIONAL VERSUS INTUITIVE INFORMATION PROCESSING ............................... 9 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................... 11 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND THREE HYPOTHESES ............................................................................................. 13 METHOD ...................................................................................................................................................................... 18 RESULTS ....................................................................................................................................................................... 22 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................................................. 34 CHAPTER 3 A SAFE BET OR EVERYTHING ON RED: THE ROLE OF PROJECTION BIAS IN VOTING .............................. 46 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................... 48 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: UNCERTAINTY, RISK, BIAS AND AMBIGUOUS STRATEGIES ......................................... 52 TWO HYPOTHESES ....................................................................................................................................................... 54 METHOD ...................................................................................................................................................................... 58 RESULTS ....................................................................................................................................................................... 71 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................................................. 86 CHAPTER 4 ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTIFICATION AND TASK AUTONOMY: COMPLEMENTARY OR COMPETING FACTORS? ................................................................................................................................................................... 96 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................... 98 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................... 100 THREE HYPOTHESES ................................................................................................................................................... 102 METHOD .................................................................................................................................................................... 108 RESULTS & DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................................. 115 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................................. 121 CHAPTER 5 A SAFE BET OR EVERYTHING ON RED: THE ROLE OF EUROPEAN AND NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION IN VOTING ...................................................................................................................................................................... 124 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................... 126 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................... 128 THREE HYPOTHESES ................................................................................................................................................... 132 METHOD .................................................................................................................................................................... 135 RESULTS ..................................................................................................................................................................... 145 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................................................... 157 CHAPTER 6 GENERAL CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................... 169 MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS .............................................................................................................................................. 169 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ...................................................................................... 171 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................................. 173 Chapter 1 Introduction to the study Background My interest in research developed quite some years before I started my PhD. In that period, I was not quite sure what my main research interest was. At that moment, I believed I was interested in almost everything. I read papers on innovation, entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, management up to political science. It took me some time to understand that all the studies which I read with so much passion all had one thing in common. Although these studies all took place in completely different settings, they all in their way tried to explain the why behind the behavior of people. It were these cognitive processes that fascinated me as understanding them more or less gives insights in who people are. It were these processes that are active every waking moment helping us interpret information and helping us form an opinion and act on it. Cognitive psychology is a popular research area as it helps us to understand other people and their thought processes. It studies the internal processes of the mind. The thinking, feeling and behavior of people are directly associated with these processes. In this dissertation, we focus on cognitive patterns. People are inclined to find patterns in everything they sense, even if there is no pattern to discover. Humans use action-oriented mental patterns (André, Borgquist, Foldevi, & Mölstad, 2002; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) as rules of thumb, so called heuristics, in speedy decision-making. At the same time, we see this desire for pattern finding in social orderliness, in cognitive social psychology, when studying identification. In this dissertation, we Introduction to the study study the antecedents and consequences of two important cognitive processes, namely heuristics and identification. Heuristics Decision-making theory has tended to focus on rational decision-making; Decision-making in which analytic processes guide choice behavior. Since Simon’s work