Empirical validation of Yager's measure of decision tranquility

Abstract

R.R. Yager (1982) has proposed a measure of tranquility as a possible surrogate for the cognitive or emotional effects experienced by individuals making a best choice decision. The authors have designed and performed an empirical experiment to validate this claim. University student subjects' responses to a paper and pencil survey suggested that Yager's measure exhibits considerable merit. The subjects were asked to rate their subjective confidence that a selected alternative was the best when confronted with various decision functions over a set of eight alternatives. Results of the experiment uncovered different behavior for graduate and undergraduate students.<>