No decision-maker is an Island

Integrating expert advice with information acquisition

Bibliographic Data

ID12166399
AuthorsGunnar E Schrah, Reeshad S Dalal (0000-0003-4040-4686, Purdue University West Lafayette, corresponding author), Janet A Sniezek (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Year2006
Volume19
Issue1
Pages43-60
Publication date2006-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Behavioral Decision Making (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0894-3257 • E-ISSN: 1099-0771
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/bdm.514
OpenAlexW2083119019
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited35

The present research examined the social context of information acquisition. The main purpose was to examine how decision-makers' information acquisition processes changed when they were provided access to expert advice. Results indicated that all decision-makers opted to acquire advice; however, they typically did so only after completing over 75% of their own information search. Decision-makers agreed more with the advice as task complexity increased, but, in general, searched information in two stages—i.e., a pre-advice “hypothesis generation” stage and a post-advice “hypothesis testing” stage. To behave in an adaptive manner, decision-makers could have used expert advice either to increase their decision accuracy or to reduce their effort expenditure (or both); they chose the former. Implications and further extensions are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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