Prescreening of choice options in 'positive' and 'negative' decision-making tasks

Research on prescreening processes in decision making was extended by manip ulating task valence in a series of three experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, half the subjects had the 'positive' task of screening and then selecti ng someone to hire for a job and half had the 'negative' task of screening and then selecting someone to fire, where the choice options (worker descri ptions) were the same in each task. In Experiment I some subjects were inst ructed to list options they would include for further consideration and som e were instructed to list options they would exclude from further considera tion. More options were screened out in the inclusion condition than in the exclusion condition and in the firing task than in the hiring task. Subjec ts in Experiment 2 were allowed to decide for themselves whether to use inc lusion or exclusion in screening options. The main results from Experiment I were replicated. Also, subjects in the hiring task were more likely than subjects in the firing task to select inclusion as a strategy for prescreen ing options. In Experiment 3 the positive task involved adding stocks to a portfolio following an unexpected financial gain and the negative task invo lved disposing of stocks following a financial setback. Again, more options were screened out by subjects selecting the inclusion strategy than by exc lusion subjects, but differences between the positive and negative tasks we re not found. Results were explained in terms of a 'status quo' bias for ad ding or deleting options that transcends task differences and a positivity bias in judging people that distinguishes judgments in different task domai ns. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.