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Do People Willfully Ignore Decision Support? Evidence from an Online Experiment

Katharina Momsen,Sebastian Bachler,S. Haeussler,M. Stefan

Published 2025 in Decision Analytics

ABSTRACT

The increasing utilization of decision support systems typically hinges on the assumption that objective information provision can improve decision making. However, this premise disregards the potential for humans to deliberately ignore information in a manner that serves their own interests. We study willful information avoidance in the utilization of decision support through an online experiment where participants solve a task of high cognitive complexity, that is, a knapsack problem. In our experiment, we find evidence consistent with motivated reasoning in one of two dimensions: Although participants do not willfully ignore decision support when it might suggest revising their initial choices, our experimental results suggest that they avoid information that could tempt them to act selfishly. We discuss the interpretation that participants use decision support to self-commit to more prosocial choices and alternative explanations. Our results reveal that even objective information provision in decision support is no guarantee for its unbiased uptake and usage. Funding: This work was supported by the Austrian Science Fund [Grant SFB F63]. Financial support from the SFB F63 Credence Goods, Incentives and Behavior, as well as the BAFIT Network from the University of Innsbruck, is gratefully acknowledged. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/deca.2025.0349 .

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