Full metadata
Title
Laypeople's Perceptions of Expert Bias in 26 Domains
Description
People often rely on experts' opinions and knowledge to inform their own decisions. This can be problematic, as expertise does not necessarily protect one from bias, and increased experience does not always increase an experts' accuracy (Cassidy & Buede, 2009; Goldberg, 1968; Molins et al., 2008). The nature of task characteristics of expert domains is associated with experts' performance (Shanteau 1992). The purpose of this thesis is to examine how people perceive experts in different disciplines, and to explore the factors that affect perceptions of expert objectivity. Perceptions of objectivity in 26 expert domains were examined. As hypothesized, higher ratings of clear and immediate feedback available to experts were associated with higher ratings of objectivity. However, other indicators of higher domain validity were not recognized by laypeople, such as higher levels of training and education. Contrary to our hypotheses, higher levels of familiarity with experts in a given domain and more experiences of disagreement with experts in a given domain were not associated with perceptions of objectivity. These results suggest that laypeople can correctly identify some indicators of the validity of different expert domains, but they cannot identify others. These perceptions affect how objectivity is perceived.
Date Created
2017-12
Contributors
- Velez, Rebecca Ellen (Author)
- Neal, Tess (Thesis director)
- Salerno, Jessica (Committee member)
- School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
- Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Topical Subject
Resource Type
Extent
36 pages
Language
eng
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Primary Member of
Series
Academic Year 2017-2018
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.45781
Level of coding
minimal
Cataloging Standards
System Created
- 2017-11-12 11:48:09
System Modified
- 2021-08-11 04:09:57
- 3 years 2 months ago
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