Navigating through the noise: The effect of color‐coded performance feedback on decision‐making
研究公司内部报告中颜色编码（如绿色表示绩效上升、红色表示下降）能否帮助管理者在资源分配任务中减少噪声对决策准确性的负面影响，通过两个实验验证了颜色编码能促进整体性信息处理、改善学习效果。
Abstract Many companies use color codes in their internal performance reports to highlight how current performance compares to performance in a previous period. We examine whether the use of color coding affects managers' decision‐making in a resource allocation task. We argue that managers' decision accuracy will be lower if they receive noisier feedback, but that this detrimental effect of noise can be mitigated through color coding. Using two experiments, we find evidence consistent with our theory. Managers who receive reports in which performance increases are color‐coded green and performance decreases are color‐coded red are less affected by noise than managers who receive feedback reports without color coding. Supplemental analyses suggest that color coding induces managers to process feedback in a more holistic manner, which reduces the adverse effect of noise on managers' learning processes. Our findings have several important implications for research and practice.