Intelligence analysts gather information from a variety of sources, process the information incrementally as it is received, and are under constant pressure for quick and accurate judgments. A serious training game called MACBETH was designed to address and mitigate cognitive biases undermining analysts’ accurate collection and interpretation of intelligence. The IARPA SIRIUS program directed attention to two cognitive biases that are the focus of this experimental study—fundamental attribution error, and confirmation bias. In this experiment, 703 participants played the MACBETH game or engaged in a more traditional learning method—a video describing the same two cognitive biases. Results demonstrated the game to be more effective than the video when explicit training methods were combined with repetitive play.
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