Justifying Decisions Making Choices for Others Enhances Preferences for Impoverished Options

Prior research has found that people prefer impoverished over enriched options. However, individuals make decisions either for themselves or for others every day. The present research investigates how and why the decision target (self or other) influences preferences for impoverished and enriched options. We hypothesized and found that participants who made choices for others preferred impoverished over enriched options more than those who made choices for themselves (Studies 1 and 2) because the former group believed that they should justify their decisions to others more than the latter group (Study 2). Overall, the current research sheds light on self-other differences in the trade-off between impoverished and enriched options, as well as the role of justification in this effect.