Action Intention Gap
By Jack Sharples This month, I marked my six month anniversary as a researcher at Core Human Factors. I started at Core after finishing a Masters in Behavioral and Decision Sciences last summer and have been reflecting on the overlap between my graduate school experience and the work that we do at Core. A large component of my education and training was seeking to explain what drives human judgement, decision-making, and behavior. I continue this work at Core when exploring the root causes of use errors. Intentions are an important component of understanding why people make certain decisions. Decision-making expert Jonathan Baron describes rational behavior as behavior that aligns with individual goals [1] . For example, if someone decides to jump out of a plane, they are behaving rationally if they acted in pursuit of a thrilling experience. For others (including me!), deciding to skydive would be highly irrational because we generally aim to avoid unnecessary risks and don’t seek