Question

Sally is trying to make a decision on whether or not customers like her company's new style of coffee maker or not. Sally personally owns the new coffee machine and loves it, and therefore when she is researching customers' opinions, she only pays attention to the good reviews and ignores the bad ones. Because of this, Sally gives her boss the wrong information. Which decision making bias is affecting Sally?

a.) Availability Heuristic
b.) Framing Effect
c.) Confirmation Bias
d.) Escalation of Commitment

Answer 1

Sally is affected by confirmation bias, as she ignores negative customer reviews and focuses only on the positive ones due to her personal liking for the product, giving her boss incorrect information.

Step-by-step explanation:

The decision making bias affecting Sally is known as the confirmation bias. This cognitive bias is characterized by the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information that confirms one's pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses. In Sally's case, her personal positive experience with the new style of coffee maker leads her to focus on the good reviews and ignore the negative ones, resulting in her providing incorrect information to her boss. Confirmation bias can significantly distort the accuracy of decision making because it leads to disregarding information that contradicts one's beliefs, despite its potential relevance or truth.