Technophobes have always known it – but now new findings by boffins in Leeds have proven that if it goes wrong, you can blame that darn machine!
Research at Leeds University Business School found that people who use computers to help them make good decisions are often being led by technology into making bad ones, also.
* Click here to sign up to free news and sport email alerts from your YEP.In other words, humans sometimes do it better and cannot be replaced by machines.
* Click here to follow the YEP on Twitter.The findings are included in a report by John Maule, Professor for Human Decision Making at Leeds University Business School.
* Click here to become a fan of the YEP on Facebook."Decision making is a vital activity," Prof Maule said.
"Many problems in how we make decisions have been attributed to limitations in how we memorise and process information, and computers are often used to overcome these restrictions.
"But because many computer systems have been developed without a full understanding of how people actually think, computers can lead people to make bad decisions."
* Click here to watch latest YEP news and sport video reports.For example, the professor explained, if someone has a hunch about how they should solve a particular problem, they will look for anything that confirms what they believe to be true.
* Click here for latest YEP news and sport picture slideshows."Computers provide us with so much more information and unless people are trained to do otherwise, they only focus on those aspects that are consistent with their initial views," he said.
"This can make them even more confident about what they are doing when in fact it is wrong. There are situations when it would have been better to follow gut reactions. Following your intuitions is much more difficult when you are sat in front of a computer. The trick is to know when and when not to use gut reactions.
"In order to prevent the problems caused by mental 'short cuts', a major re-think in how we use computers is needed."
Prof Maule's paper, Can computers help overcome limitations in human decision making?, is published in the International Journal of Human Computer Interaction.
