Looks familiar, appears more valid? The moderating role of computer-supported warnings between information repetition and decision outcome

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand whether warning messages help decision-makers recognise redundancy bias and reduce the effects of such bias during exposure to redundant information. We proposed a mechanism to reduce the effect of redundancy bias by presenting computer-supported warning messages during the decision process as a debiasing method, and tested this method via a longitudinal experiment with 108 subjects. Warnings could serve as an effective reminder of the presence of redundancy bias and reduce irrational increases in confidence. Further, these warnings could encourage people to carefully consider and adjust their decisions. The results showed that redundancy leads to repeated statements being rated as more valid than non-repeated statements. As predicted, with the help of the warnings, the participants were able to carefully reconsider and adjust their decisions, and they were somewhat satisfied with this feature.

Keywords:

• computer-supported warning
• information repetition
• overconfidence
• redundancy bias
• debiasing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan [grant number 103-2410-H-143-003-MY2].