Question

In the tv series breaking bad, a distressed air traffic controller fails to notice two airplanes in the same airspace, causing them to collide. for his job, where the cost of making an error is so high, what decision biases does the air traffic controller need to show?

Answer 1

The answer to the question is high hit rate and high false alarm rate. These decision biases relate to a concept called signal detection – where individuals are able to differentiate between information-bearing patterns and random patterns that distract from the information.

In this example, it is better for the air traffic controller to have a high hit rate – thus showing the appropriate response when the stimulus appear or have a high false alarm rate – showing a response even when the stimulus doesn’t appear.