Improving the generation of decision objectives
Abstract
Real decision makers exhibit significant shortcomings in the generation of objectives
for decisions that they face. Prior research has illustrated the magnitude of this
shortcoming but not its causes. In this paper, we identify two distinct impediments
to the generation of decision objectives: not thinking broadly enough about the range
of relevant objectives, and not thinking deeply enough to articulate every objective
within the range that is considered. To test these explanations and explore ways of
stimulating a more comprehensive set of objectives, we present three experiments involving
a variety of interventions: the provision of sample objectives, organization of objectives
by category, and direct challenges to do better, with or without a warning that important
objectives are missing. The use of category names and direct challenges with a warning
both led to improvements in the quantity of objectives generated without impacting
their quality; other interventions yielded less improvement. We conclude by discussing
the relevance of our findings to decision analysis and offering prescriptive implications
for the elicitation of decision objectives. © 2010 INFORMS.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4421Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1287/deca.1100.0172Publication Info
Bond, SD; Carlson, KA; & Keeney, RL (2010). Improving the generation of decision objectives. Decision Analysis, 7(3). pp. 238-255. 10.1287/deca.1100.0172. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4421.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Ralph L. Keeney
Research Professor Emeritus
Ralph L. Keeney received Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He
is Research Professor Emeritus of Business Administration, Duke University, and Research
Professor Emeritus of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Southern California.
His areas of expertise are the decision sciences, risk analysis, and systems management.
He is an authority on decision analysis, decision making with multiple objectives,
and value-focused thinking. During his professional career, Dr.

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