The present study tested the hypothesis that maximizers – people who routinely seek to make optimal decisions rather than quickly settling for an acceptable one – are less susceptible to cognitive biases. Experiment 1 showed that high maximizers are less swayed by irrelevant differences in the framing of a decision-making scenario than are low maximizers. Experiment 2 confirmed that maximizers are also less likely to neglect important base rate information when making decisions. Experiment 3 showed that maximizers are less likely to stick with a bad plan in which they have already invested (the sunk-cost bias) and therefore are quicker to switch to a more attractive alternative plan. Thus, we conclude that maximizers are generally more normative decision-makers. The present study also confirms the importance of using refined maximizing scales.

本研究检验了一个假设，即最大化者——那些经常寻求做出最佳决策而不是快速做出可接受决策的人——不太容易受到认知偏见的影响。实验 1 表明，与低最大化者相比，高最大化者较少受到决策场景框架中不相关差异的影响。实验 2 证实，最大化者在做决定时也不太可能忽略重要的基本利率信息。实验 3 表明，最大化者不太可能坚持他们已经投资的糟糕计划（沉没成本偏差），因此更快地转向更具吸引力的替代计划。因此，我们得出结论，最大化者通常是更规范的决策者。本研究还证实了使用精细最大化尺度的重要性。