Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Cognition. 2023 Jan;230:105264. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105264. Epub 2022 Sep 7.
Subjective confidence plays an important role in guiding behavior, for example, people typically commit to decisions immediately if high in confidence and seek additional information if not. The present study examines whether people are flexible in their use of confidence, such that the mapping between confidence and behavior is not fixed but can instead vary depending on the specific context. To investigate this proposal, we tested the hypothesis that the seemingly natural relationship between low confidence and requesting advice varies according to whether people know, or do not know, the quality of the advice. Participants made an initial perceptual judgement and then chose between re-sampling evidence or receiving advice from a virtual advisor, before committing to a final decision. The results indicated that, when objective information about advisor reliability was not available, participants selected advice more often when their confidence was high rather than when it was low. This pattern reflects the use of confidence as a feedback proxy to learn about advisor quality: Participants were able to learn about the reliability of advice even in the absence of feedback and subsequently requested more advice from better advisors. In contrast, when participants had prior knowledge about the reliability of advisors, they requested advice more often when their confidence was low, reflecting the use of confidence as a self-monitoring tool signaling that help should be solicited. These findings indicate that people use confidence in a way that is context-dependent and directed towards achieving their current goals.
主观信心在指导行为方面起着重要作用，例如，如果人们高度自信，他们通常会立即做出决定，如果不自信，他们会寻求更多信息。本研究考察了人们是否能够灵活运用信心，即信心与行为之间的映射不是固定的，而是可以根据具体情况而变化。为了验证这一假设，我们测试了这样一个假设，即低信心与寻求建议之间看似自然的关系会根据人们是否了解建议的质量而有所不同。参与者先做出初步的感知判断，然后在做出最终决定之前，在重新采样证据或从虚拟顾问处获得建议之间做出选择。结果表明，当缺乏有关顾问可靠性的客观信息时，参与者在信心高而不是低时更频繁地选择建议。这种模式反映了将信心作为一种反馈代理来了解顾问质量：即使没有反馈，参与者也能够了解建议的可靠性，随后他们会更多地向更好的顾问寻求建议。相比之下，当参与者事先了解顾问的可靠性时，他们在信心较低时更频繁地寻求建议，这反映了信心作为自我监控工具的作用，表明应该寻求帮助。这些发现表明，人们会根据具体情况和当前目标灵活运用信心。
