Michael L Dekay
Biographic Data
| ID | 2263407 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael L Dekay |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael L |
| FAMILY NAME | Dekay |
| SIGNATURE | DEKAY M L |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9973-5805 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 31 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Risky-choice framing effects persist when option descriptions are matched and complete: A replication and extension of DeKay and Dou (2024)
People’s choices involving money, health, and other matters can often be steered toward safer or riskier options by framing the options as gains or losses. This risky-choice framing effect is well established, but its direction and magnitude depend on whether the options are described completely or incompletely and whether the descriptions are matched or mismatched (in terms of good and bad outcomes) in the gain and loss frames. In a recent exper…
Accelerating Psychological Science With Metastudies: A Demonstration Using the Risky-Choice Framing Effect
A metastudy is a set of many tiny studies (microstudies) created from a much larger collection of possibilities. Metastudies can yield many of the benefits of time-consuming replications and meta-analyses but more efficiently and with greater attention to generalizability and the causal effects of moderators. Statistical precision and power are higher than in studies with the same total sample size but with fewer conditions and more participants …
The trees and the forest: Investigating variability surrounding an aggregate result
We agree with Arocha that the common and exclusive focus on aggregate results of psychological studies creates problems. While a paradigm shift toward idiographic approaches or control theory might help, we argue that traditional approaches can accomplish more if measures of variability are taken seriously. We discuss three kinds of studies: within-person treatment studies, questionnaire-based studies, and replication studies. For each of these, …
Evaluating an analytic–deliberative risk‐ranking process in a Chinese context
In previous research, a deliberative process for integrating stakeholder perspectives in the ranking of risks was introduced and empirically tested with lay groups composed predominantly of Americans. In this paper, we explore the viability of this process with lay groups of Chinese, because previous research has shown that Americans and Chinese differ substantially along many dimensions of cognition and social organization relevant to decision‐m…
Public perceptions of energy consumption and savings
In a national online survey, 505 participants reported their perceptions of energy consumption and savings for a variety of household, transportation, and recycling activities. When asked for the most effective strategy they could implement to conserve energy, most participants mentioned curtailment (e.g., turning off lights, driving less) rather than efficiency improvements (e.g., installing more efficient light bulbs and appliances), in contras…
Leader‐driven distortion of probability and payoff information affects choices between risky prospects
Research indicating that decision makers often distort new information to favor nascent preferences has focused primarily on riskless choice rather than risky choice. In addition, the critical assumption that information distortion mediates the link between the initially preferred alternative and the final choice has not been tested in a compelling manner. In an experiment designed to fill these gaps, participants made six choices involving pairs…
Preferences for change: Do individuals prefer voluntary actions, soft regulations, or hard regulations to decrease fossil fuel consumption
Better safe than sorry: Precautionary reasoning and implied dominance in risky decisions
In four studies, student and nonstudent participants evaluated the possible outcomes of binary decisions involving health, safety, and environmental risks (e.g., whether to issue a dam‐failure evacuation order). Many participants indicated that false positives (e.g., evacuation, but no dam failure) were better than true negatives (e.g., no evacuation and no dam failure), thereby implying that the more protective action dominated the less protecti…
Accounting for Variation in the Explanatory Power of the Psychometric Paradigm: The Effects of Aggregation and Focus
Most psychometric studies of risk perception have used data that have been averaged over participants prior to analysis. Such aggregation obscures variation among participants and inflates the magnitude of relationships between psychometric dimensions and dependent variables such as overall riskiness. However, most studies that have not averaged data over participants have also shifted the focus of analysis from differences among hazards to diffe…
Risk-based decision analysis in support of precautionary policies
A decision-analytic model for avoiding a risky activity is presented. The model considers the benefit and cost of avoiding the activity, the probability that the activity is unsafe, and scientific tests or studies that could be conducted to revise the probability that the activity is unsafe. For a single decision maker, thresholds are identified for his or her current subjective probability that the activity is unsafe. These thresholds indicate w…
Euthanasia Among US Critical Care Nurses: Practices, Attitudes, and Social and Professional Correlates
OBJECTIVES: The authors sought to identify associations between critical care nurses' self-reported participation in euthanasia, their social and professional characteristics, and their attitudes toward end-of-life care. METHODS: Data were collected through an anonymous mail survey of 1,560 US critical care nurses, of whom 1,139 (73%) responded. Nurses were asked to report whether they had received requests to engage in euthanasia and whether the…
The Difference between Blackstone-Like Error Ratios and Probabilistic Standards of Proof
Statements regarding the ratio of erroneous acquittals to erroneous convictions are often thought to have clear implications for standards of proof. For example, Blackstone's comment that “it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer’ is believed by many to imply a precise numerical value for proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Specifically, jurors should vote to convict only if they are at least 91 % certain of the def…
The Difference between Blackstone-Like Error Ratios and Probabilistic Standards of Proof
Statements regarding the ratio of erroneous acquittals to erroneous convictions are often thought to have clear implications for standards of proof. For example, Blackstone's comment that “it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer’ is believed by many to imply a precise numerical value for proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Specifically, jurors should vote to convict only if they are at least 91 % certain of the def…
Aggregating social behavior into person models: Perceiver-induced consistency
Two experiments explored the role of perceivers (judges) in aggregating social behavior into impressions. In Experiment 1, it was predicted and found that judges influence impressions (i.e., eye-of-the-beholder effects) not only because they disagree on how to interpret single acts but because they aggregate multiple acts in unique ways to arrive at idiosyncratic impressions. Using D. A. Kenny's (1991) general model of accuracy and consensus, it …
The Difference between Blackstone-Like Error Ratios and Probabilistic Standards of Proof
Statements regarding the ratio of erroneous acquittals to erroneous convictions are often thought to have clear implications for standards of proof. For example, Blackstone's comment that “it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer’ is believed by many to imply a precise numerical value for proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Specifically, jurors should vote to convict only if they are at least 91 % certain of the def…
Accounting for Variation in the Explanatory Power of the Psychometric Paradigm: The Effects of Aggregation and Focus
Most psychometric studies of risk perception have used data that have been averaged over participants prior to analysis. Such aggregation obscures variation among participants and inflates the magnitude of relationships between psychometric dimensions and dependent variables such as overall riskiness. However, most studies that have not averaged data over participants have also shifted the focus of analysis from differences among hazards to diffe…
Aggregating social behavior into person models: Perceiver-induced consistency
Two experiments explored the role of perceivers (judges) in aggregating social behavior into impressions. In Experiment 1, it was predicted and found that judges influence impressions (i.e., eye-of-the-beholder effects) not only because they disagree on how to interpret single acts but because they aggregate multiple acts in unique ways to arrive at idiosyncratic impressions. Using D. A. Kenny's (1991) general model of accuracy and consensus, it …
Preferences for change: Do individuals prefer voluntary actions, soft regulations, or hard regulations to decrease fossil fuel consumption
Leader‐driven distortion of probability and payoff information affects choices between risky prospects
Research indicating that decision makers often distort new information to favor nascent preferences has focused primarily on riskless choice rather than risky choice. In addition, the critical assumption that information distortion mediates the link between the initially preferred alternative and the final choice has not been tested in a compelling manner. In an experiment designed to fill these gaps, participants made six choices involving pairs…
Better safe than sorry: Precautionary reasoning and implied dominance in risky decisions
In four studies, student and nonstudent participants evaluated the possible outcomes of binary decisions involving health, safety, and environmental risks (e.g., whether to issue a dam‐failure evacuation order). Many participants indicated that false positives (e.g., evacuation, but no dam failure) were better than true negatives (e.g., no evacuation and no dam failure), thereby implying that the more protective action dominated the less protecti…
Risk-based decision analysis in support of precautionary policies
A decision-analytic model for avoiding a risky activity is presented. The model considers the benefit and cost of avoiding the activity, the probability that the activity is unsafe, and scientific tests or studies that could be conducted to revise the probability that the activity is unsafe. For a single decision maker, thresholds are identified for his or her current subjective probability that the activity is unsafe. These thresholds indicate w…
Aggregating social behavior into person models: Perceiver-induced consistency
Two experiments explored the role of perceivers (judges) in aggregating social behavior into impressions. In Experiment 1, it was predicted and found that judges influence impressions (i.e., eye-of-the-beholder effects) not only because they disagree on how to interpret single acts but because they aggregate multiple acts in unique ways to arrive at idiosyncratic impressions. Using D. A. Kenny's (1991) general model of accuracy and consensus, it …
The Difference between Blackstone-Like Error Ratios and Probabilistic Standards of Proof
Statements regarding the ratio of erroneous acquittals to erroneous convictions are often thought to have clear implications for standards of proof. For example, Blackstone's comment that “it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer’ is believed by many to imply a precise numerical value for proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Specifically, jurors should vote to convict only if they are at least 91 % certain of the def…
The Difference between Blackstone-Like Error Ratios and Probabilistic Standards of Proof
Statements regarding the ratio of erroneous acquittals to erroneous convictions are often thought to have clear implications for standards of proof. For example, Blackstone's comment that “it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer’ is believed by many to imply a precise numerical value for proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Specifically, jurors should vote to convict only if they are at least 91 % certain of the def…
Euthanasia Among US Critical Care Nurses: Practices, Attitudes, and Social and Professional Correlates
OBJECTIVES: The authors sought to identify associations between critical care nurses' self-reported participation in euthanasia, their social and professional characteristics, and their attitudes toward end-of-life care. METHODS: Data were collected through an anonymous mail survey of 1,560 US critical care nurses, of whom 1,139 (73%) responded. Nurses were asked to report whether they had received requests to engage in euthanasia and whether the…
Risk-based decision analysis in support of precautionary policies
A decision-analytic model for avoiding a risky activity is presented. The model considers the benefit and cost of avoiding the activity, the probability that the activity is unsafe, and scientific tests or studies that could be conducted to revise the probability that the activity is unsafe. For a single decision maker, thresholds are identified for his or her current subjective probability that the activity is unsafe. These thresholds indicate w…
Accounting for Variation in the Explanatory Power of the Psychometric Paradigm: The Effects of Aggregation and Focus
Most psychometric studies of risk perception have used data that have been averaged over participants prior to analysis. Such aggregation obscures variation among participants and inflates the magnitude of relationships between psychometric dimensions and dependent variables such as overall riskiness. However, most studies that have not averaged data over participants have also shifted the focus of analysis from differences among hazards to diffe…
Preferences for change: Do individuals prefer voluntary actions, soft regulations, or hard regulations to decrease fossil fuel consumption
Better safe than sorry: Precautionary reasoning and implied dominance in risky decisions
In four studies, student and nonstudent participants evaluated the possible outcomes of binary decisions involving health, safety, and environmental risks (e.g., whether to issue a dam‐failure evacuation order). Many participants indicated that false positives (e.g., evacuation, but no dam failure) were better than true negatives (e.g., no evacuation and no dam failure), thereby implying that the more protective action dominated the less protecti…
Public perceptions of energy consumption and savings
In a national online survey, 505 participants reported their perceptions of energy consumption and savings for a variety of household, transportation, and recycling activities. When asked for the most effective strategy they could implement to conserve energy, most participants mentioned curtailment (e.g., turning off lights, driving less) rather than efficiency improvements (e.g., installing more efficient light bulbs and appliances), in contras…
Leader‐driven distortion of probability and payoff information affects choices between risky prospects
Research indicating that decision makers often distort new information to favor nascent preferences has focused primarily on riskless choice rather than risky choice. In addition, the critical assumption that information distortion mediates the link between the initially preferred alternative and the final choice has not been tested in a compelling manner. In an experiment designed to fill these gaps, participants made six choices involving pairs…
Evaluating an analytic–deliberative risk‐ranking process in a Chinese context
In previous research, a deliberative process for integrating stakeholder perspectives in the ranking of risks was introduced and empirically tested with lay groups composed predominantly of Americans. In this paper, we explore the viability of this process with lay groups of Chinese, because previous research has shown that Americans and Chinese differ substantially along many dimensions of cognition and social organization relevant to decision‐m…
The trees and the forest: Investigating variability surrounding an aggregate result
We agree with Arocha that the common and exclusive focus on aggregate results of psychological studies creates problems. While a paradigm shift toward idiographic approaches or control theory might help, we argue that traditional approaches can accomplish more if measures of variability are taken seriously. We discuss three kinds of studies: within-person treatment studies, questionnaire-based studies, and replication studies. For each of these, …
Accelerating Psychological Science With Metastudies: A Demonstration Using the Risky-Choice Framing Effect
A metastudy is a set of many tiny studies (microstudies) created from a much larger collection of possibilities. Metastudies can yield many of the benefits of time-consuming replications and meta-analyses but more efficiently and with greater attention to generalizability and the causal effects of moderators. Statistical precision and power are higher than in studies with the same total sample size but with fewer conditions and more participants …
Risky-choice framing effects persist when option descriptions are matched and complete: A replication and extension of DeKay and Dou (2024)
People’s choices involving money, health, and other matters can often be steered toward safer or riskier options by framing the options as gains or losses. This risky-choice framing effect is well established, but its direction and magnitude depend on whether the options are described completely or incompletely and whether the descriptions are matched or mismatched (in terms of good and bad outcomes) in the gain and loss frames. In a recent exper…
Psychology (14 works) · Economics (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Mathematics (5 works) · Risk Perception and Management (5 works) · Statistics (5 works) · Climate Change Communication and Perception (4 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (4 works) · Political science (4 works)