Do psychology undergraduates perform differently in decision-making tasks? : exploring the possible influence of specific course training on research results

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of using psychology undergraduates as participants on a research's validity, and whether taking participants’ cultural backgrounds into account would show an impact on the research. This was assessed by testing psychology and non-psychology students on a known decision making cognitive bias named the decoy effect. The analysis suggests that there was no effect of psychology as an area of study on participants’ responses in the decoy effect tasks.