The effect of outcome desirability on information required for decisions

On each of 50 trials 20 men and 18 women sampled a pack of marked and blank cards until they decided whether marked or blank cards were predominant in the whole pack. The desirability of a predominance of marked or blank cards, the proportions of marked and blank cards in the packs, and an incentive for correctness of decision were varied in a 5 × 5 × 2 factorial design. In general, the number of cards sampled was inversely related to the desirability of the pack except for packs with proportions close to .5. This relation appears to be a complex function of the difficulty of the decision and the sex of the subject, but not the level of the incentive for correctness.