Welcome to the Nexus of Ethics, Psychology, Morality, Philosophy and Health Care

Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy
Showing posts with label Homophily. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homophily. Show all posts

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Reputational Rationality Theory

Dorison, C. (2023, March 29). 
PsyArXiv.com

Abstract

Traditionally, research on human judgment and decision making draws on cognitive psychology to identify deviations from normative standards of how decisions ought to be made. These deviations are commonly considered irrational errors and biases. However, this approach has serious limitations. Critically, even though most decisions are embedded within complex social networks of observers, this approach typically ignores how decisions are perceived by valued audiences. To address this limitation, this article proposes reputational rationality theory: a theoretical model of how observers evaluate targets who do (vs. do not) strictly adhere to normative standards of judgment and choice. Drawing on the dual pathways of homophily and social signaling, the theory generates testable predictions regarding when and why observers positively evaluate error-prone decision makers, termed the benefit of bias hypothesis. Given that individuals hold deep impression management goals, reputational rationality theory challenges the unqualified classification of response tendencies that deviate from normative standards as irrational. That is, apparent errors and biases can, under certain conditions, be reputationally rational. The reputational rewards associated with cognitive biases may in turn contribute to their persistence. Acknowledging the (sometimes beneficial) reputational consequences of cognitive biases can address long-standing puzzles in judgment and decision making as well as generate fruitful avenues for future research.

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Reputational rationality theory inverts this relationship. Reputational rationality theory is primarily concerned with the observer rather than the target.It thus yields novel predictions regarding how observers evaluate targets (rather than how targets shift behavior due to pressures from observers). Reputational rationality theory is inherently a social cognition model, concerned with—for example—how the public evaluates the politician or how the CEO evaluates the employee. The theory suggests that several influential errors and biases—not taking the value-maximizing risk or investing in the worthwhile venture—can serve functional goals once reputational consequences are considered.

As summarized above, prior cognitive and social approaches to judgment and decision making have traditionally omitted empirical investigation of how judgments and decisions are perceived by valued audiences—such as the public or coworkers in the examples above. How concerning is this omission? On the one hand, this omission may be tolerable—if not ignorable—if reputational incentives align with goals that are traditionally considered in this work (e.g., accuracy, optimization, adherence to logic and statistics). Simply put, researchers could safely ignore reputational consequences if such consequences already reinforce conventional wisdom and standard recommendations for what it means to make a “good” decision. If observers penalize targets who recklessly display overconfidence or who flippantly switch their risk preferences based on decision frames, then examining these reputational consequences becomes less necessary, and the omission thus less severe. On the other hand, this omission may be relatively more severe if reputational incentives regularly conflict with traditional measures or undermine standard recommendations.

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Conclusion

The challenges currently facing society are daunting. The planet is heating at an alarming pace. A growing number of countries hold nuclear weapons capable of killing millions in mere minutes. Democratic institutions in many countries, including the United States, appear weaker than previously thought. Confronting such challenges requires global leaders and citizens alike to make sound judgments and decisions within complex environments: to effectively navigate risk under conditions of widespread uncertainty; to pivot from failing paths to new opportunities; to properly calibrate their confidence among multiple possible futures. But is human rationality up to the task?

Building on a traditional cognitive and social approaches to human judgment and decision making, reputational rationality theory casts doubt on traditional normative classifications of errors and biases based on individual-level cognition, while simultaneously generating testable predictions for future research taking a broader social/institutional perspective. By examining both the reputational causes and consequences of human judgment and decision making, researchers can gain increased understanding not only into how judgments and decisions are made, but also how behavior can be changed—for good.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Diversity Is Useless Without Inclusivity

By Christine Riordan
Harvard Business Review
Originally posted June 5, 2014

Over the past decade, organizations have worked hard to create diversity within their workforce. Diversity can bring many organizational benefits, including greater customer satisfaction, better market position, successful decision-making, an enhanced ability to reach strategic goals, improved organizational outcomes, and a stronger bottom line.

However, while many organizations are better about creating diversity, many have not yet figured out how to make the environment inclusive—that is, create an atmosphere in which all people feel valued and respected and have access to the same opportunities.

That’s a problem.

The entire article is here.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

How online ratings affect your judgment

MedicalNewsToday
Originally published August 12, 2013

Here are two excerpts:

A new study co-authored by an MIT professor suggests that many people are, in fact, heavily influenced by the positive opinions other people express online - but are much less swayed by negative opinions posted in the same venues. Certain topics, including politics, see much more of this "herding" effect than others.

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"This herding behavior happens systematically on positive signals of quality and ratings," says Sinan Aral, an associate professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and one of three authors of the study. At the same time, Aral notes, the results "were asymmetric between positive and negative herding." Comments given negative ratings attracted more negative judgments, but that increase was drowned out by what the researchers call a "correction effect" of additional positive responses.

The entire article is here.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Avoiding the digital ‘flock’

By Chuck Leddy,
Harvard Gazette
Originally published June 27, 2013

Here are two excerpts:

Digital tools actually encourage flocking (called “homophily” by social scientists), Zuckerman said. For instance, “Facebook is very good at connecting us with people we’re already connected with.”  Zuckerman also mentioned Facebook’s search function, which personalizes results based on your “likes” and the preferences of your friends. “It’s kind of creepy,” said Zuckerman. “I’m not sure I want my friends pre-filtering for me.”

Whether in the real or virtual worlds, said Zuckerman, “We have a talent for finding people with the same socioeconomic background or racial background. But this tendency to flock may be keeping us from finding the information we need,” and the tools we’ve built for the Internet only enhance our flocking bias.

“My fear is that our tools are not promoting diversity,” said Zuckerman, whose appearance served as a launch party for his book “Rewire.” Personalization tools “want to give you precisely what you want, to make you comfortable” and ready to buy things, he said. “The danger is that we may be driven into small circles of the same content,” a sort of digital self-segregation into echo chambers where none of our assumptions get scrutinized.

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How then should people manage their tendency to seek out like-minded folk? First, they need to track their behavior for the presence of flocking bias. Zuckerman showed a graph exposing his own Twitter “follow bias”: Only 27 percent of the people he follows are women. “This is an embarrassing slide,” Zuckerman said, “but now when I follow someone, I think about” the follow bias. He said people need to be self-reflective about their media-consumption preferences, and push back against them. “I know that left on my own, I’d spend all my time reading cute cat macros on Reddit” or constantly consuming news about his beloved Green Bay Packers.

The entire story is here.