Publication
Title
The role of imagination in decision-making
Author
Abstract
The psychological mechanism of decision-making has traditionally been modeled with the help of belief-desire psychology: the agent has some desires (or other pro-attitudes) and some background beliefs and deciding between two possible actions is a matter of comparing the probability of the satisfaction of these desires given the background beliefs in the case of the performance of each action. There is a wealth of recent empirical findings about how we actually make decisions that seems to be in conflict with this picture. My aim is to outline an alternative model that is consistent with these empirical findings. This alternative model emphasizes the role imagination plays in our decisions: when we decide between two possible actions, we imagine ourselves in the situation that we imagine to be the outcome of these two actions and then compare these two imaginings.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Mind and language. - Oxford
Publication
Oxford : 2016
ISSN
0268-1064 [print]
1468-0017 [online]
DOI
10.1111/MILA.12097
Volume/pages
31 :1 (2016) , p. 127-143
ISI
000369829000005
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 05.04.2016
Last edited 09.10.2023
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