Authority Bias
Kendra's 6-month-old baby has trouble settling down at bedtime. Her friend recommends leaving the baby alone to “cry it out,” but Kendra disagrees and ignores the suggestion.
The following week, her pastor offers the same recommendation. Though the pastor doesn’t have any particular expertise in baby care, Kendra readily takes his advice.
Kendra’s willingness to trust her pastor more than she does her friend is an example of authority bias. Like most people, Kendra ascribes greater accuracy to the opinions of authority figures and is more likely to comply with their instructions.
Why it’s relevant to parent engagement:
Parents’ daily routines and responsibilities lead to regular encounters with authorities: their children’s teachers and doctors, government officials, and a multitude of actual and self-proclaimed parenting experts.
These authorities’ opinions can play an outsize role in parents’ decisions about their children. Sometimes, this is appropriate—for instance, taking a pediatrician’s advice about vaccinations. At other times, parents’ trust of authorities can be misguided—for instance, taking a celebrity’s advice on the same subject.
Harnessing the power of authority bias to reinforce desirable choices and discourage undesirable ones can help practitioners encourage parents to make decisions that will benefit them and their children.
Evidence:
Detrimental effects of authority bias have been observed in industries with hierarchical power structures. In aviation, numerous plane crashes have been attributed to crew members’ reluctance to challenge pilots—junior staff often defer to a captain’s authority even when the captain is obviously wrong.
The outsize impact of celebrities on the general public attests to the power of authority bias. For instance, product endorsements from celebrities are a common marketing tool shown to affect brand recognition, purchase intentions, and purchase behavior. Positive messages from celebrities may also successfully repair companies’ compromised reputations.
Celebrities can also have a substantial impact on medical decisions.
Authority bias can also help religious leaders wield a strong influence in areas outside their expertise. A growing “Christian parenting” industry in the United States has successfully promoted ideas about childrearing that contradict mainstream views and sometimes large bodies of scientific evidence.
At
:
In collaboration with GRS, a play-based educational preschool program, drew on authority bias to increase attendance at parent workshops. To convey the importance of the event, invitations sent to parents explicitly mentioned that the children’s teacher—a trusted source—would be in attendance.
Kendra's 6-month-old baby has trouble settling down at bedtime. Her friend recommends leaving the baby alone to “cry it out,” but Kendra disagrees and ignores the suggestion.
The following week, her pastor offers the same recommendation. Though the pastor doesn’t have any particular expertise in baby care, Kendra readily takes his advice.
Kendra’s willingness to trust her pastor more than she does her friend is an example of authority bias. Like most people, Kendra ascribes greater accuracy to the opinions of authority figures and is more likely to comply with their instructions.
Why it’s relevant to parent engagement:
Parents’ daily routines and responsibilities lead to regular encounters with authorities: their children’s teachers and doctors, government officials, and a multitude of actual and self-proclaimed parenting experts.
These authorities’ opinions can play an outsize role in parents’ decisions about their children. Sometimes, this is appropriate—for instance, taking a pediatrician’s advice about vaccinations. At other times, parents’ trust of authorities can be misguided—for instance, taking a celebrity’s advice on the same subject.
Harnessing the power of authority bias to reinforce desirable choices and discourage undesirable ones can help practitioners encourage parents to make decisions that will benefit them and their children.
Evidence:
Detrimental effects of authority bias have been observed in industries with hierarchical power structures. In aviation, numerous plane crashes have been attributed to crew members’ reluctance to challenge pilots—junior staff often defer to a captain’s authority even when the captain is obviously wrong.
1
Wiener, E. L., Kanki, B. G., & Helmreich, R. L. (Eds.). (2010). Crew resource management. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
In medicine, senior physicians wield enormous authority over patients and colleagues, sometimes with deadly consequences.
2
Gaufberg, E. H., Batalden, M., Sands, R., & Bell, S. K. (2010). The hidden curriculum: What can we learn from third-year medical student narrative reflections? Academic Medicine, 85(11), 1709-1716.
In finance, obedience to authority led employees to comply with ethically flawed directives from managers, contributing to the financial crisis that precipitated the Great Recession.
3
Werhane, P., Hartman, L., Archer, C., Bevan, D., & Clark, K. (2011). Trust after the global financial meltdown. Business and Society Review, 116(4), 403-433.
The outsize impact of celebrities on the general public attests to the power of authority bias. For instance, product endorsements from celebrities are a common marketing tool shown to affect brand recognition, purchase intentions, and purchase behavior. Positive messages from celebrities may also successfully repair companies’ compromised reputations.
4
Van Norel, N. D., Kommers, P. A., Van Hoof, J. J., & Verhoeven, J. W. (2014). Damaged corporate reputation: Can celebrity Tweets repair it?. Computers in Human Behavior, 36, 308-315.
In politics, celebrity endorsement can help candidates get votes, especially from younger voters.
5,
Jackson, D. J., & Darrow, T. I. (2005). The influence of celebrity endorsements on young adults’ political opinions. Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 10(3), 80-98.
6
Austin, E. W., Vord, R. V. D., Pinkleton, B. E., & Epstein, E. (2008). Celebrity endorsements and their potential to motivate young voters. Mass Communication and Society, 11(4), 420-436.
Celebrities can also have a substantial impact on medical decisions.
7
Larson, R. J., Woloshin, S., Schwartz, L. M., & Welch, H. G. (2005). Celebrity endorsements of cancer screening. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 97(9), 693-695.
TV host Katie Couric’s endorsement of colon cancer screening and televised colonoscopy significantly increased the number of colonoscopies in subsequent months.
8
Cram, P., Fendrick, A. M., Inadomi, J., Cowen, M. E., Carpenter, D., & Vijan, S. (2003). The impact of a celebrity promotional campaign on the use of colon cancer screening: The Katie Couric effect. Archives of Internal Medicine, 163(13), 1601-1605.
And, in a nationally representative survey of parents, more than 25% viewed celebrities as a trustworthy source for information on vaccine safety.
9
Freed, G. L., Clark, S. J., Butchart, A. T., Singer, D. C., & Davis, M. M. (2011). Sources and perceived credibility of vaccine-safety information for parents. Pediatrics, 127(Suppl 1):S107-S112.
Authority bias can also help religious leaders wield a strong influence in areas outside their expertise. A growing “Christian parenting” industry in the United States has successfully promoted ideas about childrearing that contradict mainstream views and sometimes large bodies of scientific evidence.
10
Bartkowski, J. P., & Ellison, C. G. (1995). Divergent models of childrearing in popular manuals: Conservative Protestants vs. the mainstream experts. Sociology of Religion, 56(1), 21-34.
In one survey, just under half of parents named their child’s pediatrician as the professional expert they would most likely contact for advice on child discipline; 21% named a religious leader as their preferred source for discipline advice.
11
Taylor, C. A., Moeller, W., Hamvas, L., & Rice, J. C. (2013). Parents’ professional sources of advice regarding child discipline and their use of corporal punishment. Clinical Pediatrics, 52(2), 147-155.
At
:
In collaboration with GRS, a play-based educational preschool program,
drew on authority bias to increase attendance at parent workshops. To convey the importance of the event, invitations sent to parents explicitly mentioned that the children’s teacher—a trusted source—would be in attendance.