Research suggests that observing others’ decision-making can teach people to make better decisions themselves. The research tested the effectiveness of a new debiasing training strategy and reports first evidence that watching others make decisions can improve our own decision making.

The research, co-authored by Professor Irene Scopelliti, Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science, tested the effectiveness of a new debiasing training strategy and reports first evidence that watching others make decisions can improve our own decision making.

The authors carried out three experiments, which involved participants making a set of judgements before and after a training intervention designed to improve their decision-making.

Experiment One: comparing observational learning to other common debiasing strategies

The first experiment compared observational learning to three other interventions known to reduce cognitive bias. Researchers tested participants’ susceptibility to common decision-making biases across three scales, with participants receiving one of four debiasing interventions before repeating the questions: a five-minute break; a 30-minute instructional video about debiasing techniques; playing a video game for 90 minutes; and anonymously observing another participant playing the game.

Experiment Two: weight on advice

The second experiment examined whether observing others could teach people an ‘averaging rule’, where complementing our own estimates with another person’s estimate generally results in greater accuracy. Participants were asked to estimate the weight of ten objects from pictures, before seeing the estimate of a fellow participant and being giving the option to revise their response. The difference between first and revised responses was calculated as the «weight on advice.»

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Materials provided by City University London. Original written by Hamish Armstrong. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.