CAREER: Silver Clouds, Dark Linings: The 'More Fun = Less Good' and Other Intuitions

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

CAREER: Silver Clouds, Dark Linings: The 'More Fun = Less Good' and Other Intuitions This proposal builds on the idea that people assume that the more enjoyable or fun something (a product, activity, person) is, the less wholesome or good it is. If people do subscribe to this More Fun = Less Good intuition, it is important to examine its validity: is the true correlation between fun-ness and goodness of real-world stimuli negative? For example, are better looking cars less safe, attractive people less intelligent and tasty foods less healthy? It is also important to explore the impact of the intuition on decision-making: how does subscribing to the intuition influence inferences, judgments and choices? This research tests a number of propositions centered on these questions. Specifically, I test the proposition that: (1) the real-world correlation between the fun-ness and goodness of stimuli is not as negative as people believe it is, (2) people rely on the intuition, nevertheless, to make inferences, judgments and choices, and (3) people may not be aware of the influence of the intuition on their decision-making; as such, even those who do report disagreeing that the fun-ness and goodness of stimuli are negatively correlated nevertheless make decisions as if they subscribed to the intuition. These propositions are to be tested through a combination of surveys, secondary data analyses and experimental approaches.