The majority rule or the equate-to-differentiate rule? The moderating role of regulatory focus, self-construals, and culture differences (original) (raw)

The majority rule and the equate-to-differentiate rule are two contradictory, albeit similarly structured judgmental heuristics. The present paper proposed the fol- lowing theoretical deduction on the moderation role of self-construals, regulatory focus, and culture differences which affects decision makers to use the alternative rules when choosing between weak dominant pairwise options: Increasing the ac- cessibility of the interdependent self-construal or of the information with a preven- tion focus or of intra-national culture identification causes individuals to be likely to use the majority rule, whereas increasing the accessibility of the independent self-construal or of the information with a promotion focus or of inter-national cul- ture identification causes individuals to be likely to use the equate-to-differentiate rule.