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Human Behavior Science Fair Project

Influencing Decisions

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Influencing Decisions | Science Fair Projects | STEM Projects
Are you sure you make the best decisions? This experiment will test if expert opinions or justifications can influence your decisions. Participants will be asked to make a product selection based on their preferences, with or without an expert opinion or justification.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis is that expert opinions or justifications can influence decisions.

Method & Materials

You will test three groups of participants. The first group will have to make a product selection based solely on their preferences. The second group will be offered an expert opinion before they make their selection, and the third group will be treated the same as the second group, only that they will have to justify their final decision.
You will need a minimum of 30 participants, an assortment of different brand name food or drink products, paper for each participant, pens or pencils, and a data sheet.

Results

The results of this experiment showed that expert opinions and justifications can influence decisions. An observation that stood out was that when participants were told beforehand that a certain brand of product had received the highest ratings based on a consumer report, they often allowed this information to influence their choice of product.

Why do this project?

This science project is interesting because it challenges the idea that the more information we have, the better the choice we make. It tests if too much information can lead us to make decisions that are not based on critical thinking.

Also Consider

Variations of this experiment could include testing different types of products, such as clothing or electronics, or testing different types of expert opinions, such as reviews from friends or family.

Full project details

You can find additional information and details for this science fair project here. Have fun exploring!

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