CHOICE OR NO CHOICE - IS THE LANGER EFFECT EVIDENCE AGAINST SIMULATION

The discussion of whether people understand themselves and others by u sing theories of behaviour (theory theory) or by simulating mental sta tes (simulation theory) lacks conclusive empirical evidence. Nichols e t al. (1996) have proposed the Langer effect (Langer, 1975) as a criti cal test. From people's inability accurately to predict the difference in the subjective value of lottery tickets in choice and no-choice co nditions, they argued that people do not simulate behaviour in such si tuations. In a series of four experiments, we consistently failed to r eplicate the original difference between choice and no-choice under th e conditions used by Nichols et al. We conclude that the replicability of the effect depends on an unknown combination of factors. As long a s the target effect is not better understood and under better experime ntal control, it is difficult to use it as a yardstick against which t he accuracy of simulation can be assessed.