Article ID: | iaor19941664 |
Country: | United States |
Volume: | 39 |
Issue: | 10 |
Start Page Number: | 1214 |
End Page Number: | 1226 |
Publication Date: | Oct 1993 |
Journal: | Management Science |
Authors: | Farquhar Peter H., Pratkanis Anthony R. |
Keywords: | decision theory, philosophy |
A phantom alternative is an illusory choice option-it looks real but for some reason is unavailable at the time a decision is made. Phantoms can both help and hinder successful decision making. On the one hand, phantoms can provide useful information on the boundaries of a decision problem and thus help generate new options through a restructuring of the problem. But phantoms can also produce biases, deception, and suboptimal decisions. The authors argue that phantoms should be considered explicitly in decision structuring rather than being allowed to work their effects surreptitiously. They offer guidelines on recognizing unavailable alternatives, utilizing the information provided by phantoms, counteracting phantom biases, avoiding deception in decision structuring, and guarding against suboptimal decisions.