Professionals are often influenced by conflicts of interest when they have a personal, often material, interest in giving biased advice. Although disclosure (informing advisees about the conflict of interest) is often proposed as a solution to problems caused by such conflicts, prior research has found both positive and negative effects of disclosure.
The principal investigator of this project is Sunita Sah. Sunita's interest in disclosure or sunshine policies is to understand when they work and when they do not. In other words, in what situations does disclosure help mitigate the negative effects of conflicts of interest and in what situations do we need to worry that disclosure has enabled advisors to give more biased advice? For example, do advisors behave differently if the conflict of interest is clear or ambiguous? Do advisors give more biased advice in groups or when acting alone? And what rationalizations do professionals use to justify accepting conflicts of interest?
These experiments will provide important information to determine if and when institutional corruption could occur due to conflicts of interest. They will help to identify the psychological factors that contribute to weaken advisors' compunctions about accepting COIs in an effort to create meaningful interventions that work to manage, or eliminate, such conflicts among those who advise us in our most important decisions.
Related publications:
- Sah, S., & Loewenstein, G. (in press). More Affected = More Neglected: Amplification of Bias in Advice to the Unidentified and Many. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
- Loewenstein, G., Cain, D. M., & Sah, S. (2011). The Limits of Transparency: Pitfalls and Potential of Disclosing Conflicts of Interest. American Economic Review: Paper and Proceedings, 101(3), 423-428.
- Sah, S., & Loewenstein, G. (2010). Effect of Reminders of Personal Sacrifice and Suggested Rationalizations on Residents' Self-reported Willingness to Accept Gifts: A Randomized Trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 304(11), 1204.
- Sah, S., Loewenstein, G., & Cain, D. M. (2011). The Burden of Disclosure: Increased Compliance with Distrusted Advice. Working Paper.
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