ABSTRACT
Image theory has as the first of its two central mechanisms a screening process called the compatibility test. The test consists of comparing the attributes of a decision option with a set of criteria. A “violation” occurs when an attribute of the candidate goal or plan negates, contradicts, contravenes, prevents, retards or in some other way is in conflict with one or more of these criteria. Violations are all-or-none and are not compensated for by nonviolations; nonviolations have no influence at all on the decision to reject an option. Rather, rejection is determined solely by whether the number of criterion violations exceeds some critical number, the rejection threshold. If the rejection threshold is not exceeded and if the candidate is the sole survivor of the compatibility test, it is accepted. If the rejection threshold is not exceeded and if the candidate is but one of two or more mutually exclusive survivors of the screening process, these competing survivors are passed on to the second of the theory’s two mechanisms, the profitability test, which seeks to select the best from among them.
