In Praise of Computation

Cass R. Sunstein () and Lucia A. Reisch ()
Additional contact information
Cass R. Sunstein: Robert Walmsley University, Harvard University, Harvard Law School
Lucia A. Reisch: El-Erian Professor for Behavioural Economics and Policy El-Erian Institute for Behavioural Economics and Policy Cambridge Judge Business School University of Cambridge

Environmental & Resource Economics, 2025, vol. 88, issue 10, No 8, 2707-2727

Abstract: Abstract A great deal of work in behavioral science emphasizes that statistical predictions often outperform clinical predictions. Formulas tend to do better than people do, and algorithms tend to outperform human beings, including experts. One reason is that algorithms do not show inconsistency or “noise”; another reason is that they are often free from cognitive biases. These points have broad implications for risk assessment in domains that include health, safety, and the environment. Still, there is evidence that many people distrust algorithms and would prefer a human decisionmaker. We offer a set of preliminary findings about how a tested population chooses between a human being and an algorithm. In a simple choice between the two across diverse settings, people are about equally divided in their preference. We also find that that a significant number of people are willing to shift in favor of algorithms when they learn something about them, but also that a significant number of people are unmoved by the relevant information. These findings have implications for current findings about “algorithm aversion” and “algorithm appreciation.”

Keywords: Law of small numbers; Biases; Algorithms; Algorithm aversion; Heuristics; Artificial intelligence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10640-025-00958-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:enreec:v:88:y:2025:i:10:d:10.1007_s10640-025-00958-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... al/journal/10640/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10640-025-00958-2

Access Statistics for this article

Environmental & Resource Economics is currently edited by Ian J. Bateman

More articles in Environmental & Resource Economics from Springer, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().