What Causes The Description-Experience Gap? A Drift-Diffusion Model Analysis.

When faced with a choice between two monetary lotteries, people make differentdecisions depending on whether they rely on their personal experience or upon describedinformation. In the study of risky decision making, this discrepancy has been the calleddescription-experience gap. While this phenomenon is well-established, there is still ongoingacademic debate about the underlying causes of the effect. Using the drift-diffusion model, weinvestigate how components of decision making change when participants receive feedbackabout the outcomes to their choices. Our findings show that the description-experience gap isassociated with shifts in drift rate and boundary separation, suggesting that individuals adjusttheir evaluation methods and response caution after experiencing outcomes. Notably, we foundno evidence that shifts in starting point contribute to the description-experience gap, indicatingthat pre-evaluation biases do not play a role.Additionally, our analysis introduces three subcategories to the description-experiencegap that distinguish between how existing choice preferences change due to feedback. Ourresults suggest that different dynamics might be at play depending on whether an existingpreference increases or weakens. We find that in decision problems where an existingpreference intensifies, the drift rate is, in about half of the cases, the sole parameter facilitatingthe description-experience gap. In contrast, in decision problems where an existing preferenceweakens, boundary separation is, also in about half of the cases, the only parameter causingthe gap.