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Most previous studies using the poliheuristic theory of decision have focused on national security issues wherein decision makers tend to pursue noncompensatory strategies en route to a foreign policy choice. The theory argues that decision makers avoid tradeoffs primarily with respect to the political consequences of their decisions. However, some scholars have questioned whether the same noncompensatory process would work in scenarios where the stakes are not so high, i.e., in non-loss of life situations. Perhaps decision makers would be more willing to engage in compensatory decision making in economic or diplomatic realms. This paper will use two different scenarios, a national security use of force versus an economic scenario to determine the conditions under which decision makers would be more likely to use noncompensatory instead of compensatory decision strategies en route to choice. I will also examine if the two different scenarios lead to other changes in information processing. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]