Goal-dependent resource-rational compression of attribute differences explains nonlinearities in multi-attribute decision making

Abstract

Why do multi-attribute choices so often depart from classical weighted-additive decision rules? Rather than attributing such deviations solely to biases or heuristics, we propose a resource-rational account in which value differences are encoded via capacity-limited information channels. Under resource-rational compression, these difference representations are systematically distorted, such that behavior deviates from weighted-additive predictions because value differences are not represented veridically. This theoretical account makes testable predictions about power-law relationships between true and internally represented differences. The amount of power-law-like compression is determined by information-processing capacity, emergent long-tailed prior distributions over attribute differences, and, in choice contexts, goal-dependent subjective weights that govern the allocation of limited capacity across attribute channels. We test and find support for these predictions in an attribute difference-estimation task and by reanalyzing existing food- and social-choice datasets. These results provide converging evidence for a normative, information-theoretic account of systematic nonlinearities in multi-attribute decision making. Together they show how goals can interact with cognitive capacity and priors to shape representational precision in ways that may facilitate or impair decision making.