The Google Effect: How does perceived ease of information access affect investors' judgments? (Cikurel, 2024)

Welcome to Revise and Resubmit, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of academic research, dissecting theories, challenging assumptions, and uncovering insights that shape our understanding of business, management, psychology, and beyond. Today, we’re taking a closer look at a fascinating study that touches on something we all interact with daily—technology. Specifically, we’re exploring how the perceived ease of accessing information, through tools like search engines, influences investors’ decision-making. Our featured article, titled 'How Does Perceived Ease of Information Access Affect Investors' Judgments?', is authored by Deni Cikurel and published as an Early-View article in Contemporary Accounting Research, part of the prestigious FT50 journal list, by Wiley in August 2024. In this paper, Deni Cikurel draws from the 'Google Effect'—the idea that when we know information is easily retrievable, we process it more superficially. Through a series of three experiments, the research reveals that investors relying on search engines to access financial data exhibit a strong fixation on earnings and overlook other critical pieces of information in income statements. What are the implications of this shallow processing for the future of financial decision-making? And how might this shift in judgment impact the broader world of investing? Before we get into that, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to Deni Cikurel for such an insightful contribution and to Contemporary Accounting Research and Wiley for making this important work available. Now, here’s the question—are we becoming more reliant on technology at the cost of our critical thinking? Let’s find out." Reference Cikurel, D. (2024). How does perceived ease of information access affect investors' judgments?. Contemporary Accounting Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12979