The Rational and Intuitive Decision-Making Styles scale (RIDMS) developed by Launer and Çetin (2025) is the latest and most modern measurement instrument to assess individual preferences in decision-making. Based on extensive literature studies (Svenson et al., 2023; Ali et al., 2024), it was shown, a broader and deeper understanding of intuitive decision-making is needed.
The authors combine all high (factor) loading answers from existing instruments like GDMS (Scott & Bruce, 1995), REI (Pacini & Epstein, 1999), PMPI (Burns & D`Zurilla), CoSI (Cools & van den Broek, 2007), PID (Betsch, 2004), and TIntS (Pretz et al., 2014), USID (Pachur & Spaar, 2015). The authors created a more precise measurement instrument for rational decision-making by using a three-dimensional combined approach: analytical, knowing, and planning. While the planning and knowing style is well grounded (Allinson & Hayes, 1996; Myers, McCaulley, Quenk, & Hammer, 2003; Miller, 1987; Riding & Cheema, 1991; Cools & van den Broeck, 2007), the analytical style had to be newly constructed. The GDMS instrument by Scott & Bruce (1995) contains analytical elements just as CoSI by Cools & van den Broek (2007). The analytical style is also very well grounded by Brunswik (1956) and Sjöberg (1971). The analytical style becomes very important, e.g., with data-driven and AI-based analytical decision-making (Weerasinghe et al., 2022; Yang et al., 2022; Szukits & Móricz, 2024).
To better describe intuitive decision-making, important adaptations and additions were made. The holistic (unconscious) and abstract big picture style by Pretz et al. (2014) was added. For better measuring emotional decision-making, they separated the hunches (Anticipation) from the experiential, affective style (Launer et al., 2024). Hunches should not be described as mere intuitions, but as intricate products of our mind’s generative models (Taneja & Mahey, 2022; Stubbs & Friston, 2024; Jacobs, 2025). The approach also distinguishes spontaneous (GDMS and USID) and experience-based, heuristical, inferential (PMPI and TIntS) decision-making to be more precise in very short-term decisions. They also add a missing dimension, like the slow Unconscious Thought Theory by Dijksterhuis (2004), to incorporate the timing of decision-making as well as the existence of incubation times of distraction (Smith & Blankenship, 1989; Mehrotra et al., 2022). Carlson (2008) supported this style in her confirmation study on the TIntS instrument.
Additional decision-making styles were added to make the instrument more comprehensive and adaptable to more research problems and better practical use. The creating style, based on CoSI, was added to better describe additional decision-making styles, innovative decision-making, and entrepreneurship. The avoidance of decision-making was added to the GDMS instrument to better research problems in the decision process. The support by others in decision-making was also added from the GDMS instrument to describe human interaction in decision-making.
Discussing the new challenges in measuring rational and intuitive decision-making, the RIDMS measurement instrument, with an initial German analysis (n=700) and a cross-cultural analysis in 9 countries (n=1200), shows global, not concentrating on Western country orientation
Prof. Dr. Markus A. Launer is a full professor of Business Administration and Service Management at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Campus Suderburg. He also teaches Sustainability and Risk Management in the ZWIRN Center. His fields of expertise include International Management, eBusiness, Finance, Controlling, Corporate Communication, Investor Relations, and Scientific Methods. His research focuses on digitalization, e-learning, compliance management, and Intuitive Decision-Making.
With over 20 years of experience in corporate communications, marketing, and financial controlling—nine of which were in the United States—he worked for Hoechst AG, SGL Carbon AG, Philipp Holzmann AG, Media! AG, Altana Inc., Merck KGaA, and others. He was managing partner at Transatlantic Investor Relations LLC (New York and Frankfurt) and served on the board of the German American Chamber of Commerce in New York.
Prof. Launer studied Business Administration at the University of Mannheim and earned a European Ph.D. from Tallinn University of Technology.