Learning to Use and Assess Advice about Risk

Authors

  • Matt Twyman University College London
  • Clare Harries University College London
  • Nigel Harvey University College London

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-7.1.62

Keywords:

risk communication, metacognition, implicit trust, advice

Abstract

People often learn about the levels of risk associated with different activities through advice, and their use and assessment of such advice may depend on factors such as the identity of the advisor, and the perceived quality of that advice. EARLE and CVETKOVICH (1999) demonstrated that explicit verbal estimates of trust in advisors correlate with perceived shared values between advisor and advisee. Here we apply that finding to a risk communication paradigm. EARLE and CVETKOVICH's findings were replicated in two experiments, in which participants were given advice about a range of risky activities. However, declared trust in advice sources did not correlate with how much those sources were used in making risk judgments. Relative measures of use and assessment of advisors were also found to bear different relationships to the accuracy of advice. Use of advisors was not reflected in explicit verbal estimates of trust in those advisors. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0601220

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Author Biographies

Matt Twyman, University College London

Matt TWYMAN is a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at University College London. His research interests are in the application of theories of consciousness and metacognition to learning, judgment, and decision making paradigms (e.g. self-insight into trust placement during advice-based decision making). He is a co-organiser of the London Judgment and Decision Making group's seminar series (http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/ljdm/).

Clare Harries, University College London

Clare HARRIES is a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at University College London and a Research Fellow of the ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution. She teaches applied decision making and risk communication. Her research interests are in the applied and theoretical aspects of judgment and decision making (medical decision making, metacognition and self-insight, judgmental forecasting and advice-based decision making). She is an active member of the London Judgment and Decision Making group's seminar series (http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/ljdm/).

Nigel Harvey, University College London

Nigel HARVEY is Professor of Judgment and Decision Research at University College London. He is a Research Fellow of the ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution. He is a past president of the European Association for Decision Making. With Derek KOEHLER, he co-edited the 2004 Blackwell Handbook of Judgment and Decision Making. His current research on trust and on judgment in the processing of evidence is funded by the ESRC and the Leverhulme Trust.

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Published

2006-01-31

How to Cite

Twyman, M., Harries, C., & Harvey, N. (2006). Learning to Use and Assess Advice about Risk. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-7.1.62

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2006): Learning About Risk

Section

Theorising Risk

License

Copyright (c) 2006 Matt Twyman, Clare Harries, Nigel Harvey

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.