Focusing on Desirability: The Effect of Decision Interruption and Suspension on Preferences

This research examines the phenomenon of interruptions and suspensions in decision making. It is proposed that an interruption may lead to a more top-down goaldirected mode of information processing, resulting in greater attention to the desirability rather than feasibility of options. Four studies found that when a decision is interrupted and later resumed, people are more likely to favor a highly desirable but less feasible product (study 1) and to choose a high-risk high-winning option in financial decisions (study 2). Further, in price-quality tradeoffs, interruption increases the choice of highdesirability high-price options and decreases price sensitivity (studies 3 and 4).