Slide 23 of 62
Notes:
We make the assessment using a relative yardstick, not an absolute one. It isn’t a question of being paid $30 to walk two blocks, it’s a question of saving 43% (Yes, I’ll do it) or less than 4% (not worth the trouble).
Of course the response wasn’t universal. Of the managers that chose to ‘walk’ in case B, some probably used more absolute heuristics and some were just cheapskates.
But remember that in a consensus process or a committee or a large meeting, you’ve got plenty of relativists mixed in with possibly a few absolutists and it is going to engender a certain degree of cognitive dissonance among the group.
One valuable tool is for the presentor to explicitly choose a yardstick and make that the point of decision. I.e., “would you walk two blocks for thirty bucks?”
Of course, now we see -- as we did in the first example -- that the presentor is doing more than just laying out the facts, but actually influencing the outcome by the frame. It is forever so -- unless the decision-makers are consciously aware of the f
