Application of the Dual-Process Theory of Decision Making to Threat Detection during Airport Security Screening

Abstract

We investigated the effects of different decision frames and incentives on training in a simulated airport security screening task using a 3 (frame: analytical, affective, comparative) x 2 (incentive: positive, negative) x 4 (trial block) design. Performance was measured by criterion settings, sensitivities, and detection response times. Results indicate that participants in the analytical frame (i.e., emphasis on gaining/losing points) outperformed participants in both the affective (i.e., emphasis on saving/losing lives) and comparative frames (i.e., emphasis on performing better/worse than peers). These results have implications for training airport luggage screeners in the real world in that eliciting strong emotions override our reason and logic and lead participants to perform poorly in discriminating between signal and noise.

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