Adapting to the transition from socialism to capitalism in Poland: The role of screening strategies in social change

Before making a final choice, people screen available options for acceptabi lity; those considered "good enough " constitute a goal-category Foraging t heories assume screening is an adaptation whereby low-ranked options are ac cepted when search costs (i.e., effort ol risk associated with striving) ar e high and rejected when search costs are low: We argue that some individua ls, called interval strategists, typically consider,many options acceptable and, hence, form broad goal-categories; others, called point strategists, typically consider few options acceptable and form narrow goal-categories. We also argue that because of limited capacity: there is a trade-off betwee n encoding ends and encoding means so that as the goal-category range incre ases, detailed planning decreases. Findings iii our first study support thi s analysis. The next two studies assumed search costs in Poland (e.g., the effort or risk involved in shopping, housing, traveling) were greater tinde r central planning than under the current market economy. Hence, prior to 1 989, broad goal-categories were more adaptive than narrow goal-categories; since 1989, however the reverse has been tote. Consistent with this hypothe sis, in Study 2, Poles who were point strategists perceived their condition s of life and self-efficacy had improved more since 1989 than did Poles who were interval strategists. Study 3 demonstrates a capacity to recognize wh ich screening strategy is more adaptive under central planning and market c onditions: An entrepreneur who failed prior to 1989 but succeeded afterward was inferred to be a point strategist, and one who succeeded prior to 1989 but failed afterward was inferred to be ar? interval strategist.