OVERCOMING ROUTINE: A 21ST CENTURY SKILL FOR A 21ST CENTURY ECONOMY

Abstract

The aim of this study is to demonstrate that overcoming routine behavior holds efficiency potential in complex decision environments and to estimate the proportion of decision-makers who can successfully overcome routine when thinking time is not incentivized. Curiosity may promote non-routine behavior, as it reflects the recognition and desire to explore uncertain and ambiguous situations. A total of 262 US-based MTurk participants completed both a curiosity questionnaire and an experimental cognitive puzzle task. High levels of self-reported “joyous exploration” were not associated with a higher number of experimental decisions. Contrary to prior findings suggesting that exploration predicts performance in human–computer interaction and facilitates learning from errors, participants who performed better relied less on exploratory decisions. Only about 10% of participants were able to overcome routine behavior, confirming that induced routines can strongly influence decision-making. Those who overcame routine exhibited longer response times when exposed to unexpected feedback but solved the task more efficiently. These findings are consistent with research indicating that fast, intuitive decisions increase susceptibility to framing effects, while exploration is time-consuming. Overall, the study reinforces the view that performance in solving complex problems depends heavily on rule identification, rule knowledge, and rule application.

Data:
Received: 3 Oct 2019
Revised: 16 Nov 2019
Accepted: 6 Dec 2019
Published: 20 Dec 2019