We will allow subjects to first generate a value, receive a warning if the value is too close to the appraised value, and then generate a replacement value if they want. We believe the opportunity to generate a second value after the warning will increase the strength and effect of the warning in decreasing bias. We further expect that a stronger intervention, where subjects are presented with a system generated value as a replacement to their own initial value, will have the effect of decreasing bias even more. Research Design All of the necessary information about a house for sale in the Tallahassee area has been obtained through the assistance of a realtor. This information has been used to populate a DSS designed in Microsoft Access 2.0 and Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0.
Initial screens gather demographic information about the subject.
Digitized photos of the house and yard are also available to subjects. After spending as much time as they want perusing this information, subjects choose the final options, to proceed with their work. Subjects in the treatments can also access the owner's asking price. In each case, subjects will have the opportunity to go with the value they already entered or to generate another value. We are currently in the process of organizing a pilot study to test the system and the interventions.