Job Characteristics, Prototypes, and the Information Dilution Effect

Abstract

Research on information dilution effects, information integration, and prototypes suggests that the act of performing simple tasks lowers performers' evaluations even when they have demonstrated the ability to perform more complex tasks. The literature on information dilution also suggests that some cognitive processes operate below the conscious level. In a study using 58 American college students who evaluated actors' performances of high- versus low-complexity tasks, the results showed that the students were unaware of the cognitive processes they used to evaluate the actors and mistakenly believed that their evaluations were most influenced by the quality, rather than the quantity, of the actors' performances. However, the students did accurately estimate the relative proportions of complex and simple tasks performed by the actors.