Answering Questions and Making Decisions

One of the characteristics of I/O psychology is its extensive use of research and statistics. Although there are many reasons for this reliance on research, the most important is that research ultimately saves on organization money. Though this statement may seem a bit insensitive, keep in mind, however, that for most organizations, the most important thing is the bottom line. If an I/O psychologist is not able to save the company considerably more money than it pays for her salary and expenses, she will be without a job.

These monetary savings can result from many factors, including increased employee satisfaction, increased productivity, and fewer accidents. Perhaps an excellent example of how research can save a company money involves employment interview. For many years, many organizations relied on the employment interview as the main method for selecting employees (most still do). But research has shown that the employment interview is not the best predictor of future behavior on the job. Thus, without research, an organization might still be spending money on a method that actually lowers its profits rather than raises them.

Common sense is often wrong

Often, there is a temptation not to conduct research because the answer to a question is "common sense". Unfortunately, common sense is not so common and is often wrong. Until the end of the fifteent century, common sense said that the world was square and a person sailing toward the horizon would fall off the earth. Until late this century, common sense said that women could not perform as well as men. In other words, many of our commonsense policies have been and continue to be, wrong.

As a more recent example, imagine taking a multiple choice test. After finishing the test, you go back and read question 21 but can't decide if you should stick with your original response of "b" or change it to "c". What would you do? Most students respond with what they have been told: stick with your first answer. If you stuck with this piece of common advice, you probably would miss the question. Contrary to common sense, five studies investigating this question all concluded that 70% of the time an answer will be changed from a wrong to right.