Domain-Specific Decision Avoidance

What it measures

Three items measure the degree to which a person prefers to avoid situations requiring decisions in a particular domain. Park and Sela (2018) created domain-specific versions of the scale for Study 1A using financial, clothes shopping, food choice, and medical/health decision domains. The scale demonstrated very high internal consistency across all versions. A financial decision-avoidance version was used in several other studies in the article.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• I try to avoid situations that require me to make _____ decisions.
• I prefer not to make any decisions related to _____.
• I don't like to think about issues involving _____ decisions.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

The blank in each item should be filled with the focal decision domain (e.g., financial/money, clothes shopping, food choices, medical/health). Alphas by domain in Study 1A: financial (.83), clothes shopping (.92), food choices (.96), medical/health (.91). Validity was not discussed. Companion scale from the same paper measures domain-specific decision confidence (ID 964).

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Park, J. J., & Sela, A. (2018). Not my type: Why affective decision makers are reluctant to make financial decisions. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(2), 298–319.

Keywords