Stability and robustness of idiosyncratic choice bias

Abstract

A well-known observation in repeated-choice experiments is that a tendency to prefer one response over the others emerges if the feedback consistently favors that response. Choice bias, a tendency to prefer one response over the others, however, is not restricted to biased-feedback settings and is also observed when the feedback is unbiased. In fact, participant-specific choice bias, known as idiosyncratic choice bias (ICB), is common even in symmetrical experimental settings in which feedback is completely absent. Here we ask whether feedback-induced bias and ICB share a common mechanism. Specifically, we ask whether ICBs reflect idiosyncrasies in choice-feedback associations prior to the measurement of the ICB. To address this question, we compared the long-term dynamics of ICBs with feedback-induced biases in two longitudinal experiments involving 319 participants. We show that while feedback effectively induced choice preferences, its effect was transient and diminished within several weeks. By contrast, we show that ICBs remained stable for at least 22 months. These results indicate that different mechanisms underlie the idiosyncratic and feedback-induced biases. Choice bias - the tendency to prefer one option over another for no apparent reason - is stable for at least 22 months in perceptual tasks. While feedback can induce choice bias, its effect diminishes within weeks, suggesting a different underlying mechanism.

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