Superstition can affect eye exam results

Research published in the 21 June 2016 issue of Proceedings of the National Acady of Science shows that people cannot avoid using their past decisions to inform their current decisions, co-author and head of optometry and vision science at the University of Auckland Professor Steven Dakin said. Successfully adapting to our environment means we use information about our past successes and failures to make better decisions in the future, Prof Dakin explained, but sometimes the outcomes of past experiences are not helpful and taking th into account leads to worse decisions. The research – which was conducted at University College London and Stanford University in collaboration with Prof Dakin at the University of Auckland – shows it is easier to reinforce those tendencies than to break th down. We found that people’s choices are influenced by the success or failure of past choices, even where this history is irrelevant, Prof Dakin said. For example, many people switch their decision following a failure, even though such superstitious behaviour makes th perform poorly. Our study shows that it’s a rigid response syst. Even when it’s not to your advantage, you can’t help but incorporate past decisions in your decision making. The research found that the tendency could be strengthened but not weakened; existing biases could not be eradicated. Adaptation is more sensitive to confirming than contradicting responses, Prof Dakin said.The study presented ways to counteract the response to better measure performance, such as when assessing vision at an eye clinic. People’s irrational tendency to rely on their past decisions is important because vision and hearing tests assume we are rational. Without accommodating people’s individual biases, the test results can look worse that they really are, Prof Dakin explained. We are now looking at children to see how prone they are to biases, because you could argue either way that they might be more or less superstitious than adults, he added. You could argue that they are likely to be less superstitious because they have less experience of the world, or they could be more superstitious because superstition has a kind of adaptive value and is a default state for the syst.