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The process of hypothesis testing entails both information selection (asking questions) and information use (drawing inferences from the answers to those questions). We demonstrate that although subjects may be sensitive to diagnosticity in choosing which questions to ask, they are insufficiently sensitive to the fact that different answers to the same question can have very different diagnosticities. This can lead subjects to overestimate or underestimate the information in the answers they receive. This phenomenon is demonstrated in two experiments using different kinds of inferences (category membership of individuals and composition of sampled populations). In combination with certain information-gathering tendencies, demonstrated in a third experiment, insensitivity to answer diagnosticity can contribute to a tendency toward preservation of the initial hypothesis. Results such as these illustrate the importance of viewing hypothesis-testing behavior as an interactive, multistage process that includes selecting questions, interpreting data, and drawing inferences.

Employees of different backgrounds at different levels within an organization view the causes of poor performance differently. In a study using casino workers, supervisors were more willing to pinpoint lack of effort and poor supervision as causes in a test situation, where those with little experience on the casino floor were more likely to blame working conditions and task difficulty. Workers were also more responsive when the test case had served a length of time in the casino similar to their own.

The research tested Laing and Morrison's myopic and hyperopic models for sequential, three-person coalition games when the goal is maximizing rank position. The myopic model assumes that people behave as if the present trial were the last, while the hyperopic model assumes that people behave as if the coalition formed on the present trial will continue forever. The experiment involved three different planning horizon conditions: an indefinite number of trials (the condition specified by Laing and Morrison for their models), one trial remaining, and eight trials remaining. Four different accumulated point totals were used: 300-250-50, 350-150-100, 250-200-150, and 225-200-175. In general, the myopic model was more successful than the hyperopic model, though neither model was especially accurate. Changes in the myopic model were proposed, and the difficulties in developing a theory of social decision making involving long range planning were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]