Decision Made, Good Feelings Fade? How Noise and Multitasking Affect Decision Confidence and Wellbeing.

PURPOSE: The aim was to examine the influence of office noise and multitasking on decision confidence, overconfidence, satisfaction, calibration, as well as affective wellbeing. Detrimental effects of noise and multitasking on perceived annoyance and concentration are well documented. Little is known about whether decision confidence and wellbeing during decisions are also affected.

METHOD: Between-subjects laboratory experiment ( n = 109) with a noise condition with office noise presented through headphones (A-weighted equivalent SPL of LAeq = 60  dB); a multitasking condition with an email-sorting task as primary task; and a control condition.

RESULTS: Compared to the control condition, subjects in the noise and multitasking conditions exhibited overestimation of confidence. There was also a significant decrease in wellbeing for people in the noise condition. Calibration was not affected.

CONCLUSION: In the case of noise, wellbeing is affected even before the thresholds of workplace legislation are reached. Undue overconfidence can have detrimental effects upon subsequent decisions and risk taking. Findings suggest that there should be greater consideration of environmental influences during decision making in work environments.