60 likes | 77 Views
What is the total amount of money contained in this bottle full of nickels?. Why Averaging Works. Case I: Estimates Bracket the Truth. Absolute Estimate Deviation Person 1 22 |22 – 68.95| = 46.95 Person 2 106 |106 – 68.95| = 37.05
E N D
What is the total amount of money contained in this bottle full of nickels? avg2v2 J. Soll, Duke University, 2006
Why Averaging Works avg2v2 J. Soll, Duke University, 2006
Case I: Estimates Bracket the Truth Absolute Estimate Deviation Person 1 22 |22 – 68.95| = 46.95 Person 2 106 |106 – 68.95| = 37.05 Average of the Individual Deviations: (46.95 + 37.05)/2 = 42 Average Estimate: 64 Absolute Deviation of the Average Estimate: |64 – 68.95| = 4.95 avg2v2 J. Soll, Duke University, 2006
Case II: Estimates Don’t Bracket the Truth Absolute Estimate Deviation Person 1 100 |100 – 68.95| = 31.05 Person 2 80 |80 – 68.95| = 11.05 Average of the Individual Deviations: (31.05 + 11.05)/2 = 21.05 Average Estimate: 90 Absolute Deviation of the Average Estimate: |90 – 68.95| = 21.05 avg2v2 J. Soll, Duke University, 2006
Why Averaging Works • If estimates bracket, averaging beats the average accuracy of individuals • If they don’t bracket, averaging ties the average accuracy of individuals • Therefore, average performance in a group sets a lower bound for the performance of the composite! • This logic extends easily to the case of n individuals avg2v2 J. Soll, Duke University, 2006
Deciding Whether to Averagesome factors to consider in analyzing your context • Differences in Expertise • Omit anyone who is twice as bad as someone else • Ten to twelve estimates is sufficient • Bracketing Rate • It’s affected by • Differences in information • Differences in training • Differences in perspective • If it’s likely that everyone is on same side of truth, averaging will only “lock in” the average performance. • Chances of identifying the expert • Common cues include confidence, experience, academic degrees • In many situations, these cues are only weakly correlated with performance avg2v2 J. Soll, Duke University, 2006