Accentuation and compatibility: Replication and extensions of Shafir (1993) to rethink choosing versus rejecting paradigms

Abstract

We conducted a replication of Shafir (1993) who showed that people are inconsistent in their preferences when faced with choosing versus rejecting decision-making scenarios. The effect was demonstrated using an enrichment paradigm, asking subjects to choose between enriched and impoverished alternatives, with enriched alternatives having more positive and negative features than the impoverished alternative. Using eight different decision scenarios, Shafir found support for a compatibility principle: subjects chose and rejected enriched alternatives in choose and reject decision scenarios (d = 0.32 [0.23,0.40]), respectively, and indicated greater preference for the enriched alternative in the choice task than in the rejection task (d = 0.38 [0.29,0.46]). In a preregistered very close replication of the original study (N = 1026), we found no consistent support for the hypotheses across the eight problems: two had similar effects, two had opposite effects, and four showed no effects (overall d = $-$0.01 [$-$0.06,0.03]). Seeking alternative explanations, we tested an extension, and found support for the accentuation hypothesis.

Keywords

• pre-registered replication; choosing versus rejecting; compatibility principle; replication crisis
• accentuation hypothesisnakeywords