Omission Neglect and the Bias Blind Spot: Effects of the Self-Other Asymmetry in Susceptibility to Bias and Responsiveness to Debiasing A dissertation submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PH.D.) IN THE DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING of the College of Business 2011 By Xiaoqi Han M.A., Marquette University Committee Chair: Frank R. Kardes, Ph.D. i ABSTRACT Omission Neglect and the Bias Blind Spot: Effects of the Self-Other Asymmetry in Susceptibility to Bias and Responsiveness to Debiasing By Xiaoqi Han Chair: Dr. Frank R. Kardes Research on the bias blind spot shows that people are less capable of identifying biases in their own judgment than in others. People generally believe that they are less susceptible to biases than their peers and average people. This dissertation investigates the self-other bias asymmetry with respect to omission neglect. Omission neglect refers to insensitivity to missing or unknown information. Results from bias blind spot research imply a potential relationship between the self-other asymmetry in bias belief and omission neglect. Research on bias correction suggests that people holding a higher degree of asymmetry in bias beliefs may be less likely to correct biases even when omissions are made noticeable. Ironically, consumers who believe that they are less vulnerable to omission neglect may be more susceptible to omission neglect. Consumers may be also less likely to correct their judgment even when omitted information is made noticeable. The goal of the dissertation is to develop debiasing techniques to debias omission neglect in order to improve consumer judgment and decision making. Corrective procedures are designed to debias omission neglect by means of reducing the bias blind spot. Prior to debiasing, two studies are designed to substantiate the assumption about the relationship between the bias blind spot and omission neglect. Study 1 demonstrates that ii people believe others are susceptible to omission neglect, but they themselves are not. Study 2 shows that higher self-other asymmetry predicts predict greater omission neglect and a decreased likelihood of judgment correction to a moderate position. Last, in study 3, we show that debiasing is most effective when the bias blind spot is most specifically related to omission neglect. However, only people in low need for cognitive closure are responsive to debiasing. Taken together, the studies show that the bias blind spot contributes to omission neglect and reduces responsiveness to debiasing. iii ©Copyright 2011 Xiaoqi Han ALL RIGHTS RESERVED iv DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, my sister, my friend Dawn, and my late grandma. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Frank R. Kardes. Without him, I would not have been able to complete this dissertation. He is kind, inspiring and tremendously knowledgeable. The inspirations on research I have received from him are beyond description. I am honored to have worked under his guidance. I am also thankful to all the faculty members in the marketing department. I appreciate their kindness. Particularly, I thank Dr. James Kellaris for his humor; I thank Dr. David Curry for his warm and sincere advice; I also thank Dr. Karen Machleit for her generous support; and I thank Dr. Norman Bruvold for his fun and informative culture anecdotes. I would like to thank my family who has supported my education all the way through. Coming from a working class family, I would not have pursued higher education persistently without my family’s belief in me. Particularly, I would like to thank my parents, who worked really hard to support my education. I would like to thank my sister, who has been my emotional support and best friend. I would also like to thank my late grandma, who had faith in me regardless. Finally, I would like to thank my friend, Dawn, who stayed as my company in times of difficulty. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................ 4 Omission Neglect................................................................................................. 4 Debiasing Omission Neglect ............................................................................... 5 The Bias Blind Spot ............................................................................................. 7 The Use of Introspective vs. Behavioral Information between Actors and Observers of Bias ............................................................................................... 12 Bias Blind Spot and Omission Neglect ............................................................. 14 Self-other Asymmetry and Bias correction ....................................................... 16 Dual-processing Theories, Self-other Asymmetry and Omission Neglect ........ 16 The Shallowness Thoughts of the Self and System 1 Processing ...................... 17 CHAPTER THREE HYPOTHESES ..................................................................................................... 21 Relationship between the Self-other Asymmetry and Omission Neglect .......... 21 Debiasing omission neglect ............................................................................... 22 The Need for Cognitive Closure and Debiasing effect ...................................... 23 CHAPTER FOUR STUDY 1 .............................................................................................................. 26 Overview ........................................................................................................... 26 Method ............................................................................................................... 26 Results ............................................................................................................... 27 Discussion .......................................................................................................... 29 CHAPTER FIVE STUDY 2 .............................................................................................................. 30 Overview ........................................................................................................... 30 Pretest ................................................................................................................ 31 Method ............................................................................................................... 32 Results ............................................................................................................... 35 Discussion .......................................................................................................... 39 CHAPTER SIX STUDY 3 .............................................................................................................. 41 Overview ........................................................................................................... 41 Method ............................................................................................................... 44 Results ............................................................................................................... 47 Discussion .......................................................................................................... 49 CHAPTER SEVEN GENERAL DISCUSSION .................................................................................... 51 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 55 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................................ 64 APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................................ 67 APPENDIX C ............................................................................................................................................ 73 vii TABLES AND FIGURES FIGURE 1 THE PREDICTION .................................................................................... 14 FIGURE 2 STUDY 1 .................................................................................................... 88 FIGURE 3 STUDY 1 .................................................................................................... 89 FIGURE 4 STUDY 2 .................................................................................................... 90 TABLE 1 STUDY 2 .................................................................................................... 91 FIGURE 5 STUDY 2 .................................................................................................... 92 FIGURE 6 STUDY 2 .................................................................................................... 93 TABLE 2 STUDY 3 .................................................................................................... 94 FIGURE 7 STUDY 3 .................................................................................................... 95 viii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Consumers’ judgment and decisions are subject to a variety of biases. Biases refer to the systematic