Class Year

2021

Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Fall 2021

Department 1

Management

Abstract

Confirmation bias is a daily and commonly under-recognized cognitive bias, one in which requires more research. More specifically, confirmation bias is when individuals seek out information to confirm beliefs and reject opposing views. This phenomenon is readily studied in economics and psychology to name a few. However, confirmation bias is often neglected in an empirical setting. Thus, with a gap in the literature, this study tested the susceptibility of confirmation bias in college students, and utilized social domains, Metacognitive Self Score (MCS), and gender to predict the level of confirmation bias. Using a between-subjects design, participants were randomly assigned to a community treatment or a competence treatment. The participants completed an online survey consisting of three parts that aimed to measure the confirmation bias, MCS, and demographic information. The participants in the competence treatment showed stronger confirmation bias, while the influence of MCS scores did not differ across the two domains. The hypotheses that females would show more confirmation bias in the competence domain and males would show more confirmation bias in the community domain were not supported. The overall results show important takeaways and implications regarding the confirmation bias in organizational settings.

Comments

Written for OMS 405: Irrational Behavior

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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