Investigating the Decision Making Styles of General Aviation Pilots: An Exploratory Study

The decision making styles used by individuals to select among potential alternatives can differ considerably. For instance, some individuals may adopt a “rational’ approach where they attempt to systematically consider different alternatives and their relative benefits and costs. This can be contrasted with an “intuitive” approach where an individual may rely more on gut feeling to select amongst alternatives. This study seeks to develop a profile for pilot’s decision making style, and understand how decision making styles impact information acquisition and choice. Moreover, this study also seeks to determine if decision making styles change as pilots become more experienced and if the decision making style in the pilot group differs from that of a non-pilot group. The results of this study suggest that pilots have a disposition towards an analytical decision making style which involves a rational approach to decision making. In addition, there are no significant differences between the expert and novice pilot groups and between the pilot and non pilot groups in their predisposition towards an analytical decision making style.