Bias and Misinformation in Technical and Managerial Communications

摘要

Communication is critical to the successful operation of any organization. However, communication channels and systems can be only as effective as the information content transmitted through them. If the information is unfairly biased by the sender to support a particular viewpoint, serious misconceptions can occur. Several techniques that may be used to bias the perception of presented information are described and specific, published examples of many of these are provided. A controlled study using 23 human subjects was conducted to determine if these techniques could successfully bias the decisions made by the subjects. Three biasing techniques were selected for the study. Subjects were persuaded to select either of two choices depending on the biasing direction presented by the experimenter. All three techniques proved effective in persuading subjects to select the alternative targeted by the presenter.