science

Information bias (psychology)

Information bias (psychology) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Information bias (psychology) rather than just read about it. In short: Information bias is a cognitive bias to seek information when it does not affect action. An example of information bias is believing that the more information that can be acquired to make a decision, the better, even if that extra information is irrelevant for the decision.

Key takeaways

Information bias (psychology) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Information bias (psychology) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Information bias (psychology) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Information bias is a cognitive bias to seek information when it does not affect action. An example of information bias is believing that the more information that can be acquired to make a decision, the better, even if that extra information is irrelevant for the decision.

Example In an experiment (Baron, Beattie & Hershey 1988), subjects considered this diagnostic problem involving fictitious diseases: A female patient is presenting symptoms and a history which both suggest a diagnosis of globoma, with about 80% probability. If it isn't globoma, it's either popitis or flapemia. Each disease has its own treatment which is ineffective against the other two diseases. A test called the ET scan would certainly yield a positive result if the patient had popitis, and a negative result if she has flapemia. If the patient has globoma, a positive and negative result are equally likely. If the ET scan was the only test you could do, should you do it? Why or why not? Many subjects answered that they would conduct the ET scan even if it were costly, and even if it were the only test that could be done. However, the test in question does not affect the course of action as to what treatment should be done. Because the probability of globoma is so high with a probability of 80%, the patient would be treated for globoma no matter what the test says. Globoma is the most probable disease before or after the ET scan. In this example, we can calculate the value of the ET scan by considering 100 patients, of which 80 have globoma. Since it is equally likely for a patient with globoma to have a positive or negative ET scan result, 40 people will have a positive ET scan and 40 people will have a negative ET scan. The remaining 20 patients have either popitis or flapemia. Out of those, the 10 patients with popitis will have a positive ET scan while the 10 patients with flapemia will have a negative scan. Thus, out of the 50 patients with a positive result (40 globoma + 10 popitis), 80% have globoma; likewise, out of the 50 patients with a negative test (40 globoma + 10 flapemia), 80% have globoma. The probability of globoma is therefore entirely unaffected by the result of the test, regardless of how it turns out. The test can provide no information that would affect the decision to treat the globoma, so it should not be carried out. While this example illustrates information bias in a clinical setting, similar patterns can also be observed in everyday contexts such as media consumption.

See also Shared information bias Cognitive psychology List of cognitive biases

References

Studies Baron, Jonathan; Beattie, Jane; Hershey, John C (1988). "Heuristics and biases in diagnostic reasoning" (PDF). Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 42 (1): 88–110. doi:10.1016/0749-5978(88)90021-0. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Information bias (psychology)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Information bias (psychology) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Information bias (psychology) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Information bias (psychology) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Information bias (psychology)

In research: Information bias (psychology) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Information bias (psychology) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Information bias (psychology) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cognitive biases, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Information bias (psychology) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Information bias (psychology) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Information bias (psychology) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Information bias (psychology) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Information bias (psychology) in simple terms?

Why does Information bias (psychology) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Information bias (psychology)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Information bias (psychology).