Retention and Transfer of Cognitive Bias Mitigation Interventions: a Systematic Literature Study
doctoral thesis
Cognitive biases can have adverse effects on decision making. When these decisions affect others, as in policymaking, mitigating these biases is especially desirable. To add value for policymaking, the reduction of bias needs to be retained over time and transfer across contexts. Numerous bias mitigation interventions have been developed and evaluated; however, the retention and transfer of the effects have not been summarized. Therefore, this systematic literature study aimed to give an overview of the retention and transfer of these interventions that have been properly studied to date. The systematic search yielded 40 abstracts eligible for screening. At the end of the selection process, only four articles remained, describing 6 studies. Five of these articles investigated retention. Bias mitigation was found up to 12 months after the interventions. Most of these studies investigated serious games. Only one study explored the transfer effect and found that half the participants reported the intervention had affected their decision making in daily life. Our main conclusion is that there is insufficient evidence regarding the retention and transfer of bias mitigation interventions, to recommend them as useful tools to help policymakers make better decisions.
TNO Identifier
957437
Publisher
TNO ; University Utrecht
Place of publication
Soesterberg ; Utrecht