Psychology Atlas

How The Mind Works
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Psychological Phenomena

Pseudocertainty Effect

Decision-Making and Judgment Biases

In prospect theory, the pseudocertainty effect is the tendency for people to treat an outcome as certain when it is actually still uncertain, in decisions made across multiple stages. When evaluating a later stage of a decision, people tend to disregard how uncertain the outcome of an earlier stage really was.

Facts
Core Claim
In prospect theory, the pseudocertainty effect is the tendency for people to perceive an outcome as certain while it is actually uncertain in multi-stage decision making. 1
First Described Year
1986 1
Classification
Type of Phenomenon
Cognitive Phenomenon 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Pseudocertainty effect
Wikimedia Foundation
  • lead paragraph
    In prospect theory, the pseudocertainty effect is the tendency for people to perceive an outcome as certain while it is actually uncertain in multi-stage decision making.
  • Bibliography section, Tversky and Kahneman 1986 entry
    Tversky, Amos; Kahneman, Daniel (1986). "Rational Choice and the Framing of Decisions" (PDF). The Journal of Business. 59 (S4): S251.
  • lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
    In prospect theory, the pseudocertainty effect is the tendency for people to perceive an outcome as certain while it is actually uncertain in multi-stage decision making.
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.