Comparing the measures of consumer knowledge calibration

Abstract

Purpose Studies on consumer knowledge calibration have used different measures of calibration. The purpose of this paper is to undertake a comparative assessment of important measures. In addition, it seeks to identify the best performing measure. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports on three studies. The first study uses eight survey data sets. The second and third studies use experiments. Findings The study found that the Brier score component measure is most responsive to feedback and is the most suitable measure of knowledge calibration. The results also indicate that researchers should use measures that use item-level confidence judgements, as against an overall confidence judgement. Research limitations/implications By documenting the relationship between the different measures of knowledge calibration, the study enables proper interpretation and accumulation of results of various studies that have used different measures. The study also provides guidance to researchers in psychology and education where this issue has been noted. Practical implications The study provides guidance to managers in knowledge intensive industries, such as finance and insurance, interested in understanding their consumers’ knowledge calibration. Originality/value This is the first study in consumer research that examines this issue.

Improving decision making through visual knowledge calibration

“…Thus, calibration helps to close the gap between the expressed confidence (subjective confidence) and the accuracy of a decision (objective quality) (Koriat, 2012;Sniezek and Henry, 1989;Tang et al, 2014). Calibration raises the degree of certainty (Alba and Hutchinson, 2000), reduces the tendency to take inappropriate actions (Maule and Hodgkinson, 2003) based on inaccurate managerial perceptions (Pillai, 2010), and improves information search (Pillai and Hofacker, 2020). This view is also expressed in the following quote:…”

“…, 2014). Calibration raises the degree of certainty (Alba and Hutchinson, 2000), reduces the tendency to take inappropriate actions (Maule and Hodgkinson, 2003) based on inaccurate managerial perceptions (Pillai, 2010), and improves information search (Pillai and Hofacker, 2020). This view is also expressed in the following quote:Perfect calibration exists when one’s belief in the veracity of the knowledge (confidence) matches the correctness of that knowledge (accuracy) (Pillai, 2010, p. 301).…”