The impact of data quality information on decision making: an exploratory analysis

This paper describes an experiment that explores the consequences of providing information regarding the quality of data used in decision making. The subjects in the study were given three types of information about the data's quality: none, two-point ordinal, and interval scale. This information was made available to the subjects, along with the actual data. Two decision strategies were explored: conjunctive and weighted linear additive. Two decision environments were used: a simple environment and a relatively complex environment. Various combinations of these factors were employed to explore several issues. These include complacency, consensus, and consistency. The paper provides preliminary insights into which type of data-quality information is most effective and the circumstances in which data-quality information is most effective. Such knowledge would be of value to those responsible for designing databases that support decision-makers. Overall, we find that in a situation where subjects are confronted with clearly differentiated alternatives, the inclusion of data-quality information impacted the selection of the preferred alternative while maintaining group consensus.