The Role of a Decision Maker's Perspective in the Generation and Assessment of Actions in a Conflict Situation.

Abstract

Two experiments were performed to assess the influence of perspective and information on the generation of actions an opponent might take to resolve a conflict. Both experiments employed a problem in which guerrilla forces captured the French Embassy in a hypothetical South American country and took the personnel hostage. In the first experiment, subjects were assigned the perspective of a guerrilla, a hostage, or an advisor to the President of France. Experiment 2 was performed to assess the effect of providing both a perspective and information about an opponent's objectives on the generation of actions the opponent might take to resolve a conflict. These results may suggest that perspective has only a limited influence on the generation and assessment of actions an opponent might take to resolve a conflict. Without further research, it is difficult to determine whether perspective impairs a decision maker's performance in a conflict situation or whether its influence is only salient in hindsight.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 15, 1982
Accession Number
ADA120738

Entities

People

  • Carol A. Manning

Organizations

  • University of Oklahoma

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Applied Psychology
  • Behavioral Sciences
  • Biomedical Research
  • Cognition
  • Decision Theory
  • Engineering
  • Geography
  • Governments
  • Human Factors Engineering
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Military Research
  • Psychology
  • South America
  • Students
  • Systems Engineering

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • International Relations and Conflict Resolution
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Systems Analysis and Design