Debiasing in a Minute or Less, or Too Good to Be True? The Effect of Micro-Interventions on Decision-Making Quality

Abstract In this study, the effects of a novel debiasing micro-intervention (an intervention that requires no training or instructions) are tested in three experiments. The intervention is epistemologically informed and consists of two questions that prompt the quantification of degrees of a belief (“How certain am I?”) and the justification of a belief (“Why?”). In all three experiments, this intervention was ineffective. Unexpectedly, however, when the micro-intervention consisted only of the justification question (“Why?”), there was a small, but noticeable positive effect in two experiments. Overall, even though the hypothesized effects were not observable, a justification prompt might be a potentially effective micro-intervention that should be explored in future research. View Full-Tex