scholarly journals Cognitive Biases and the Cultural Disconnect between Engineers and Decision-makers

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 35-62
Author(s):  
Nigel Booker ◽  
Jeffrey D. Gates ◽  
Peter Knights
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Structured Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Engineering Degree ◽  
Average Person ◽  
Technical Discipline

Engineering culture is alien to the way the average person thinks and makes decisions. There is a dichotomy between the evidence-based analytical methodologies used by engineers and the intuitive or heuristic processes commonly used by the general public. Both can be appropriate in context, but wrong choices can lead to undesirable and sometimes dire consequences. For the recommendations from an engineering analysis to be accepted by non-technical decision-makers, the findings must be presented in a manner that takes account of human factors. Successful engineers are those who are proficient in translating the language of their technical discipline into that of broader society. A key skill is consequential reasoning, which is contained within engineering codes of ethics but is also critical to the persuasive power of analytical findings. Students and early-career engineers need structured learning in communication and in socio-cultural and emotional intelligence. They need exposure to cognitive psychology and epistemology, especially in relation to bias and false logic. If formal humanities courses cannot be accommodated in the undergraduate engineering degree, then post-graduate and continuing professional development opportunities should be offered.

scholarly journals Capital structure construct: a new approach to behavioral finance

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 86-97
Author(s):  
Jose Anselmo Perez Reyes ◽  
Montserrat Reyna Miranda ◽  
Jorge Vera-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Capital Structure ◽  
Behavioral Finance ◽  
Latent Variables ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Financial Behavior ◽  
Chief Financial Officers ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Financial Decision ◽  
Construct Dimensions

Within the framework of behavioral finance, this research shows that financial behavior can be assessed as a cognitive construct. Using certain variables, a multidimensional “cognitive finance” construct can thus be established. Through a technological – psychometric type design with descriptive data analysis, a factor analysis is presented to determine which latent variables tend to charge significantly in order to assess the validity of the dimensions comprising the construct of capital structure and explore its dimensions in relation to financial theory. A 44-item questionnaire is adapted and applied to a sample of chief financial officers from diverse public and nonpublic companies in Mexico. The analysis reveals the existence of four construct dimensions consistent with corporate financial theory. The model helps to explain how decision-makers react to uncertainty and environmental conditions, directly affecting the valuation of firm’s losses or earnings. As evidenced by the results, application of the Item Response Theory to the field of behavioral finance could open up new avenues to the study of cognitive biases, involved in the financial decision-making process. Thus, this implies that behavioral finance can also be treated as “cognitive finance.”

What Is It Like to Be a Citizen?

In Our Name ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Beerbohm
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Ethics Of Belief ◽  
Moral Obligations

This chapter defends a theory of citizenship that recognizes our need to make online decisions under electoral pressures, given our foibles as decision makers. Drawing upon the extensive literature on decision and judgment, it examines how fragile citizens are when it comes to decision making. The usual heuristics offered by political scientists suggest that citizens rely on informational shortcuts that are morally irresponsible. If we reconceive the role of the voter in explicitly moral terms, this approach is unsatisfactory in addressing the cognitive biases and defects of citizens. The chapter also considers the notion of cognitive partisanship and argues that it is unavoidable for decision makers to rely on heuristics when they reason about complex decisions. It concludes by emphasizing the task for a democratic ethics of belief: to provide citizens with heuristics that reduce the cognitive burden while respecting the moral obligations to attach to coercive, term-shaping decision making.

scholarly journals How Cognitive Biases Influence the Data Verification of Safety Indicators: A Case Study in Rail

Safety ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Burggraaf ◽  
Groeneweg ◽  
Sillem ◽  
van Gelder
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Verification Process ◽  
Support Decision Making ◽  
Good Quality Data

The field of safety and incident prevention is becoming more and more data based. Data can help support decision making for a more productive and safer work environment, but only if the data can be, is and should be trusted. Especially with the advance of more data collection of varying quality, checking and judging the data is an increasingly complex task. Within such tasks, cognitive biases are likely to occur, causing analysists to overestimate the quality of the data and safety experts to base their decisions on data of insufficient quality. Cognitive biases describe generic error tendencies of persons, that arise because people tend to automatically rely on their fast information processing and decision making, rather than their slow, more effortful system. This article describes five biases that were identified in the verification of a safety indicator related to train driving. Suggestions are also given on how to formalize the verification process. If decision makers want correct conclusions, safety experts need good quality data. To make sure insufficient quality data is not used for decision making, a solid verification process needs to be put in place that matches the strengths and limits of human cognition.

A Novel Model for Integrating Nanotechnology Track in Undergraduate Engineering Degree Programs

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mangilal Agarwal ◽  
Maher E. Rizkalla ◽  
Hazim El-Mounayri ◽  
Sudhir Shrestha ◽  
Jane A. Simpson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Degree Programs ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Engineering Degree ◽  
Novel Model

On Measuring Engineering Risk Attitudes

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Van Bossuyt ◽  
Lucila Carvalho ◽  
Andy Dong ◽  
Irem Y. Tumer
Keyword(s):  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
Risk Identification ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Risk Seeking ◽  
Risk Treatment ◽  
Identification Analysis

Theories of rational decision making hold that decision makers should select the best alternative from the available choices, but it is now well known that decision makers employ heuristics and are subject to a set of psychological biases. Risk aversion or risk seeking attitude has a framing effect and can bias the decision maker towards inaction or action. Understanding decision-makers’ attitudes to risk is thus integral to understanding how they make decisions and psychological biases that might be at play. This paper presents the Engineering-Domain-Specific Risk-Taking (E-DOSPERT) test to measure the risk aversion and risk seeking attitude that engineers have in four domains of engineering risk management: identification, analysis, evaluation and treatment. The creation of the instrument, an analysis of its reliability based on surveying undergraduate engineering students in Australia and the United States, and the validity of the four domains are discussed. The instrument is found to be statistically reliable to measure engineering risk aversion and risk seeking, and to measure engineering risk aversion and risk seeking to risk identification and risk treatment. However, factor analysis of the results suggest that four other domains may better describe the factors in engineers’ attitude to risk.

S and T Fellowship Experiences in Washington, D.C.

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Hutzel ◽  
Diana D. Glawe
Keyword(s):  
Faculty Members ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Engineering Profession ◽  
Technical Data ◽  
Public Benefit ◽  
Engineering Discipline ◽  
Technical Discipline ◽  
The Many ◽  
Motivating Factor

The currency of the engineering profession is knowledge. The knowledge gained by an engineer immersed in public policy is commonly undervalued because it is seen as not being applicable to the technical discipline. However, knowledge of the policymaking process is exactly what is needed to understand and communicate technical data in a way that decision-makers can leverage in developing prudent policies. So exposure to policy in effect enables engineers to apply their knowledge for public benefit — the genesis of the engineering discipline. This is only one of the many compelling reasons why interaction between engineers and policymakers should be valued by industry and academia. It was a motivating factor for two faculty members who recently made a temporary transition away from their respective universities to pursue Science and Technology fellowships in Washington, DC. Both individuals had tremendous experiences, professionally and personally, and encourage other engineers to make a similar adventure in Washington, DC one of their career goals.

Automation Bias, Accountability, and Verification Behaviors

1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 204-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen L. Mosier ◽  
Linda J. Skitka ◽  
Mark D. Burdick ◽  
Susan T. Heers
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Decision Aids ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Commission Errors ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Glass Cockpit ◽  
Omission Errors

Automated procedural and decision aids may in some cases have the paradoxical effect of increasing errors rather than eliminating them. Results of recent research investigating the use of automated systems have indicated the presence automation bias, a term describing errors made when decision makers rely on automated cues as a heuristic replacement for vigilant information seeking and processing (Mosier & Skitka, in press). Automation commission errors, i.e., errors made when decision makers take inappropriate action because they over-attend to automated information or directives, and automation omission errors, i.e., errors made when decision makers do not take appropriate action because they are not informed of an imminent problem or situation by automated aids, can result from this tendency. A wide body of social psychological research has found that many cognitive biases and resultant errors can be ameliorated by imposing pre-decisional accountability, which sensitizes decision makers to the need to construct compelling justifications for their choices and how they make them. To what extent these effects generalize to performance situations has yet to be empirically established. The two studies presented represent concurrent efforts, with student and “glass cockpit” pilot samples, to determine the effects of accountability pressures on automation bias and on verification of the accurate functioning of automated aids. Students (Experiment 1) and commercial pilots (Experiment 2) performed simulated flight tasks using automated aids. In both studies, participants who perceived themselves “accountable” for their strategies of interaction with the automation were significantly more likely to verify its correct functioning, and committed significantly fewer automation-related errors than those who did not report this perception.

Missed Opportunity for Diversity in Engineering: Black Women and Undergraduate Engineering Degree Attainment

2021 ◽  
pp. 152102512098691
Author(s):  
Trina L. Fletcher ◽  
Jay P. Jefferson ◽  
Brittany N. Boyd ◽  
Kelly J. Cross
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Degree Attainment ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Women In Engineering ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Engineering Degree ◽  
Trend Data ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Missed Opportunity

Efforts dedicated towards broadening participation for Black and other underrepresented groups in engineering at post-secondary institutions has intensified in recent decades. However, Black women have not yet reached parity in undergraduate engineering degree attainment. To elucidate this trend, data from the U.S. Department of Education was analyzed to investigate postsecondary completion for Black women in engineering. Results indicate that the percentage of degrees awarded to Black women has slightly decreased during the last five years when compared to women of all races. However, the percentage of Black women obtaining engineering degrees has increased when compared to the general Black engineering population, with a larger percentage of Black women obtaining engineering degrees compared to their male counterparts than any other ethnicity. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to provide recommendations for research avenues that may strengthen knowledge around the enrollment and retention of Black women in engineering at post-secondary institutions.

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