Abstract

In general, people believe that they make rational decisions based on their preferences or values. But, according to a long history of research, it turns out that preferences and values change according to people’s decisions. Choice-induced preference change (CIPC) refers to the phenomenon in which preferences increase for chosen options and decrease for rejected ones. In the present study, representative studies of CIPC and theories (including cognitive dissonance) proposed to explain its mechanism are introduced. Next, studies that aim to resolve controversies in relation to the conditions required for CIPC and the mechanism of its occurrence are analyzed. These include studies based on brain imaging and other neuroscientific methods that examine the neural bases of CIPC. Finally, a recently discovered phenomenon of choice-induced judgment change (CIJC) is introduced. CIJC refers to the phenomenon in which nonpreference-based judgments (such as perceptual ones) change in accordance with decision making. The observation of CIJC raises the possibility that judgments in general, (not only preference-based) change in accordance with one’s decision making. Based on this discussion, remaining questions and directions for future research are proposed.