scholarly journals Self-protecting motivation, indexed by self-threat, modifies retrieval-induced-forgetting and confidence in employment decision bias against out-group targets

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaohang Lui ◽  
Christopher Kent ◽  
Josie Briscoe
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Employment Decisions ◽  
Decision Bias ◽  
Employment Decision ◽  
Personal Strengths ◽  
Induced Forgetting ◽  
Recruitment Practice ◽  
Positive Traits

AbstractHuman memory is malleable by both social and motivational factors and holds information relevant to workplace decisions. Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) describes a phenomenon where retrieval practice impairs subsequent memory for related (unpracticed) information. We report two RIF experiments. Chinese participants received a mild self-threat manipulation (Experiment 2) or not (Experiment 1) before an ethnicity-RIF task that involved practicing negative traits of either in-group (Chinese) or an out-group (Japanese) target. After a subsequent memory test, participants selected their preferred applicant for employment. RIF scores correspond to forgetting of unpracticed positive traits of one target (Rp−) relative to the recall of practiced negative traits of the other target (Rp+). Enhanced forgetting of positive traits was found in both experiments for both targets. Across experiments, a significant target by threat interaction showed that target ethnicity modified RIF (an ethnicity-RIF effect). Inducing a self-protecting motivation enhanced RIF effects for the out-group (Japanese) target. In a subsequent employment decision, there was a strong bias to select the in-group target, with the confidence in these decisions being associated with RIF scores. This study suggests that rehearsing negative traits of minority applicants can affect metacognitive aspects of employment decisions, possibly by shaping the schemas available to the majority (in-group) employer. To disrupt systemic racism, recruitment practices should aim to offset a human motivation to protect one-self, when exposed to a relatively mild threat to self-esteem. Discussing the negative traits of minority applicants is a critical, and sensitive, aspect of decision-making that warrants careful practice. These data suggest that recruiting individuals should be reminded of their personal strengths in this context, not their vulnerabilities, to secure their decision-making for fairer recruitment practice.

Decision‐making Systems in Human Memory Modelling

Kybernetes ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 29-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simeon J. Mrchev
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Memory Modelling

Complicating or simplifying? Investigating the mixed impacts of online product information on consumers’ purchase decisions

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-287
Author(s):  
Yan Yu ◽  
Ben Qianqian Liu ◽  
Jin-Xing Hao ◽  
Chuanqi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Product Information ◽  
Purchase Decisions ◽  
Decision Strategy ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Decision Bias ◽  
Set Size ◽  
Product Presentation ◽  
Choice Set

Purpose Prior literature indicates conflicting effects of online product information, which may complicate or simplify consumer purchase decisions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how different online product information (i.e. the choice set size and the popularity information and its presentation) affect consumers’ decision making and the related market outcomes. Design/methodology/approach This research relies on information-processing theories and social learning theory. By stepwise conducting two 2×2 within-subject factorial design experiments, this research examines the effects of the choice set size, product popularity information and product presentation on consumers’ decision making and the aggregated market outcomes. Findings The results show that product popularity information led consumers to either simplify or complicate their decision strategy, depending on the size of the choice sets. Additionally, presenting products by their popularity in descending order resulted in consumers making decisions with a larger decision bias. The results also show that the presence of product popularity was more likely to forge a “superstar” structure in a large market. Practical implications The research suggests that e-retailers and e-marketplace operators should carefully utilize product popularity information. Multiple mechanisms that shape different shopping environments with different orders are necessary to create a long-tailed market structure. Originality/value This study found the mixed effects of product popularity information when it is presented in different environments (i.e. the large/small choice set and the sorted/randomized product presentation). The overuse of popularity information may induce consumers’ decision bias.

scholarly journals How can geologic decision-making under uncertainty be improved?

Solid Earth ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1469-1488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina G. Wilson ◽  
Clare E. Bond ◽  
Thomas F. Shipley
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Optimal Decision ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Decision Bias ◽  
Availability Bias ◽  
Knowledge And Beliefs ◽  
Effective Interventions ◽  
Anchoring Bias ◽  
Integrated Processing

Abstract. In the geosciences, recent attention has been paid to the influence of uncertainty on expert decision-making. When making decisions under conditions of uncertainty, people tend to employ heuristics (rules of thumb) based on experience, relying on their prior knowledge and beliefs to intuitively guide choice. Over 50 years of decision-making research in cognitive psychology demonstrates that heuristics can lead to less-than-optimal decisions, collectively referred to as biases. For example, the availability bias occurs when people make judgments based on what is most dominant or accessible in memory; geoscientists who have spent the past several months studying strike-slip faults will have this terrain most readily available in their mind when interpreting new seismic data. Given the important social and commercial implications of many geoscience decisions, there is a need to develop effective interventions for removing or mitigating decision bias. In this paper, we outline the key insights from decision-making research about how to reduce bias and review the literature on debiasing strategies. First, we define an optimal decision, since improving decision-making requires having a standard to work towards. Next, we discuss the cognitive mechanisms underlying decision biases and describe three biases that have been shown to influence geoscientists' decision-making (availability bias, framing bias, anchoring bias). Finally, we review existing debiasing strategies that have applicability in the geosciences, with special attention given to strategies that make use of information technology and artificial intelligence (AI). We present two case studies illustrating different applications of intelligent systems for the debiasing of geoscientific decision-making, wherein debiased decision-making is an emergent property of the coordinated and integrated processing of human–AI collaborative teams.

scholarly journals Exercise and Retrieval-Induced Forgetting

Psych ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 405-411
Author(s):  
Justin Cantrelle ◽  
Paul Loprinzi
Keyword(s):  
Acute Exercise ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Moderate Intensity ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Moderate Intensity Exercise ◽  
Parallel Group ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Induced Forgetting ◽  
Experimental Group

Retrieving a subset of items from memory can cause forgetting of other related items in memory, referred to as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). This type of forgetting (RIF) is thought to be related to working memory and executive control processes, of which are known to be influenced by acute exercise. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether acute exercise could accentuate RIF. A two-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled intervention was employed. Participants (N = 40) were randomized into one of two groups, including an experimental group (15-min of moderate-intensity exercise) and a control group (time-matched seated task). Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) and retrieval practice (RP) were assessed from a category-exemplar memory task. There was no significant main effect for RIF and no group by RIF interaction, suggesting that acute exercise did not alter RIF more than the control group. There was a significant main effect for RP, but there was no group by RP interaction. These RP findings align with the RIF findings, indicating that acute exercise did not alter RP more so than the control group. In conclusion, our experimental results do not provide support for an association of acute exercise on retrieval-induced forgetting or retrieval practice.

scholarly journals Choice and Welfare Reform: Lone Parents’ Decision Making around Paid Work and Family Life

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTHONY RAFFERTY ◽  
JAY WIGGAN
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Job Search ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Dependent Child ◽  
Employment Decisions ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
Lone Mothers ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Child Age

AbstractWelfare-to-work policy in the UK sees ‘choice’ regarding lone parents’ employment decisions increasingly defined in terms of powers of selection between options within active labour market programmes, with constraints on the option of non-market activity progressively tightened. In this paper, we examine the wider choice agenda in public services in relation to lone-parent employment, focusing on the period following the 2007 Freud Review of welfare provision. (Freud, 2007) Survey data are used to estimate the extent to which recent policies promoting compulsory job search by youngest dependent child age map onto lone parents' own stated decision-making regarding if and when to enter the labour market. The findings indicate a substantial proportion of lone parents targeted by policy reform currently do not want a job and that their main reported reason is that they are looking after their children. Economically inactive lone mothers also remain more likely to have other chronic employment barriers, which traverse dependent child age categories. Some problems, such as poor health, sickness or disability, are particularly acute among those with older dependent children who are the target of recent activation policy.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document