The effect of apathy and compulsivity on planning and stopping in sequential decision-making.

ABSTRACT: Real-life decision-making often comprises sequences of successive decisions about whether to take opportunities as they are encountered or keep searching for better ones instead. We investigated individual differences related to such sequential decision-making and link them especially to apathy and compulsivity in a large online sample (discovery sample: n = 449 and confirmation sample: n = 756). Our cognitive model revealed distinct changes in the way participants evaluated their environments and planned their own future behaviour. Apathy was linked to decision inertia, i.e., automatically persisting with a sequence of searches for longer than appropriate given the value of searching. Thus, despite being less motivated, they did not avoid the effort associated with longer searches. In con

SUBMITTER: Scholl J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8970514 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature