Affective Brain Seminar - Theory of Machine: When do people rely on algorithms

Speaker: Jennifer Logg, University of California, Berkeley

Algorithms, scripts for sequences of mathematical calculations, are powerful. Anecdotal evidence has led to a widespread assumption that people are resistant to allowing a numerical formula to make decisions for them, even though algorithms often outperform human judgment (e.g., Dawes, Faust, & Meehl, 1989). Yet, people often utilize algorithms to inform their decisions (e.g., people use Google’s search algorithms, outsource financial decisions to Betterment’s algorithms, and job recommendations from LinkedIn’s algorithms, and travel from point A to point B with the help of Google Maps while using Global Positioning System, GPS). I test whether aversion to algorithms is as widespread as prior work suggests and when people might rely on algorithmic advice.

Time: 5.15pm, 12 January 2017

Venue: Room 313, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP

More information on the seminar series can be found at  www.affectivebrain.com.
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