Decision making processes on the detection of online auction site scams

Kathryn Hardwick.2014

The general aim of this investigation was to determine how time pressure and purchase item value can affect decision making accuracy. Decision making strategy was manipulated via time pressure to see whether rational or intuitive thinking produces better decisions. Thirty participants completed a questionnaire to verify that they were Internet users, followed by a novel test phase displayed via a simulated online auction site, where each participant had to make YES/NO decisions on whether they believed the stimuli were scam or genuine items. The non-time pressure group significantly outperformed the time pressure group, supporting previous research that more accurate decisions are made when time pressure is not enforced. Purchase value did not have a significant effect on decision making accuracy, and no interaction was found from the data. To conclude, this study supports previous research in the idea that rational thinking outperforms intuitive thinking on decision making online. Implications from this research suggest a growing demand for advising users on how to detect fraudulent items on online auction sites, and also for software developers to enhance fraud detection systems for these websites.