People foster an illusion of understanding human better than algorithmic decision-making, when in fact, both are black-boxes

Bonezzi, A., Ostinelli, M., & Melzner, J. (2022). The human black-box: The illusion of understanding human better than algorithmic decision-making. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Feb 1011. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001181

Abstract: As algorithms increasingly replace human decision-makers, concerns have been voiced about the black-box nature of algorithmic decision-making. These concerns raise an apparent paradox. In many cases, human decision-makers are just as much of a black-box as the algorithms that are meant to replace them. Yet, the inscrutability of human decision-making seems to raise fewer concerns. We suggest that one of the reasons for this paradox is that people foster an illusion of understanding human better than algorithmic decision-making, when in fact, both are black-boxes. We further propose that this occurs, at least in part, because people project their own intuitive understanding of a decision-making process more onto other humans than onto algorithms, and as a result, believe that they understand human better than algorithmic decision-making, when in fact, this is merely an illusion.