Domain-Specific Decision Confidence

What it measures

Four items assess how confident and capable a person feels when making decisions within a specific domain, as well as the perceived ease of those decisions. Park and Sela (2018) used the scale primarily in the context of financial investment decisions. A two-item version (items 1 and 4 only) was used in a study in the web appendix.

Response format

7-point (likely semantic differential; anchors not explicitly stated)

Scale items

• How confident are you in making _____ decisions?
• How difficult is it for you to make _____ decisions? (r)
• How easy is it for you to make _____ decisions?
• How well do you think you can make _____ decisions?

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

Usage notes & scoring

Response anchors were not stated; based on the question format, semantic differential anchors keyed to the question keywords (e.g., very unconfident/very confident) are most likely. Item 2 is reverse-scored. The blank in each item should be filled with the focal domain (e.g., financial investment). The two-item version uses items 1 and 4. Companion scale from the same paper measures decision avoidance (ID 963).

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