Does Feedback Increase Decision Aid Use Among Hiring Professionals?

Abstract

We examined the influence of formative and outcome feedback on people’s reliance on decision aids. Decision aids are tools that managers can use to increase the accuracy of their hiring decisions. In our study, participants were asked to make 20 different hiring decisions and make predictions of a candidate’s performance on the job, with the option of using a decision aid formula. We manipulated whether participants received feedback on the accuracy of their predictions, the accuracy of the decision aid’s predictions, or both. The results demonstrated that feedback failed to have a significant impact on decision aid use for both hiring choice and performance predictions. Our findings suggest that the relationship between feedback and decision aid is weak, and that feedback does not meaningfully affect the use of decision aids.