This seems plausibly more reliable than either “avoid all outside influences” (and >hope your uninfluenced decisions are best) or “expose yourself to particular >random priming” (and hope that a randomly influenced decision is best or >harmless).
Given that we don’t seem to have much idea what input is likely to prime us to think about what (if I see the letters ‘ABC’, do I think about US broadcasters, childhood education or matrix multiplication?), it seems unlikely that ‘Avoid all outside influences’ is a plausible strategy. Is there really going to be nothing in my room which affects my judgment on matters of importance? Indeed, even if I lock myself in a dark room, maybe this primes me to think about ghost stories, or astronomy, or photography? I think wherever you are, you’re probably subjecting yourself to some priming effects.
Given that it’s pretty hard to avoid all stimuli, I think the ‘average your guesses’ technique might well be necessary—think about your decision in as many contexts as possible and average your conclusions—if not, you’ll never know what influences are lurking in your supposedly neutral environment.
Given that we don’t seem to have much idea what input is likely to prime us to think about what (if I see the letters ‘ABC’, do I think about US broadcasters, childhood education or matrix multiplication?), it seems unlikely that ‘Avoid all outside influences’ is a plausible strategy. Is there really going to be nothing in my room which affects my judgment on matters of importance? Indeed, even if I lock myself in a dark room, maybe this primes me to think about ghost stories, or astronomy, or photography? I think wherever you are, you’re probably subjecting yourself to some priming effects.
Given that it’s pretty hard to avoid all stimuli, I think the ‘average your guesses’ technique might well be necessary—think about your decision in as many contexts as possible and average your conclusions—if not, you’ll never know what influences are lurking in your supposedly neutral environment.