Human-Alignment Influences the Utility of AI-assisted Decision Making

Human-Alignment Influences the Utility of AI-assisted Decision Making | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Human-Alignment Influences the Utility of AI-assisted Decision Making Nina Corvelo Benz, Manuel Gomez Rodriguez This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6362540/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 11 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Whenever an AI model is used to predict a relevant (binary) outcome in AI-assisted decision making, it is widely agreed that, together with each prediction, the model should provide an AI confidence value. However, it has been unclear why decision makers have often difficulties to develop a good sense on whento trust a prediction using AI confidence values. Very recently, Corvelo Benz and Gomez Rodriguez have argued that, for rational decision makers, the utility of AI-assisted decision making is inherently bounded by the degree of alignment between the AI confidence values and the decision maker’s confidence ontheir own predictions. In this work, we empirically investigate to what extent the degree of alignment actually influences the utility of AI-assisted decision making. To this end, we design and run a large-scale human subject study (n = 703) where participants solve a simple decision making task—an online card game—assisted by an AI model with a steerable degree of alignment. Our results show a positive association between the degree of alignment and the utility of AI-assisted decision making. In addition, our results also show that post-processing the AI confidence values to achieve multicalibration with respect to the participants’ confidence on their own predictions increases both the degree of alignment and the utility of AI-assisted decision making. Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing/Computer science Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformationupdate.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 04 Jun, 2025 Reviews received at journal 22 May, 2025 Reviews received at journal 09 May, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 04 May, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 30 Apr, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 29 Apr, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 28 Apr, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 16 Apr, 2025 Editor invited by journal 14 Apr, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 11 Apr, 2025 First submitted to journal 02 Apr, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6362540","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":450398172,"identity":"83f6e08b-01b6-4bb1-8695-c5effe04c190","order_by":0,"name":"Nina Corvelo Benz","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA1UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACZjB5gIEfTJKkRbKBaC0MUC0GRKs3Z+c9+OFHxR0542tnDx5g+HPYnoG99/ELfFosm/mSJXvOPDM2u52XcICx7XBiA89xMwt8WgwO8xhIg1Ruu51jcPhvw+0EBok0NgMCWox/A7XUb56dA/TOn9v2xGgxA9mSYCAN0sJ2m7FBIo35ASEtlkC/GM6A+OV/YhvPMTZ8OhgMzp8xvgEMMXn+2bmHPzD8SbPnZ29j/oBXDwLwQCigFWwSpGkBAqJtGQWjYBSMgpEBAAHYS+fHsLLjAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Max Planck Institute for Software Systems","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nina","middleName":"Corvelo","lastName":"Benz","suffix":""},{"id":450398173,"identity":"0d9e1ab5-ed2e-4d0f-b893-7d3433cf2404","order_by":1,"name":"Manuel Gomez Rodriguez","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Max Planck Institute for Software Systems","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Manuel","middleName":"Gomez","lastName":"Rodriguez","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-02 15:08:28","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6362540/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6362540/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":81848754,"identity":"501bd9a0-c98c-4726-9223-f6f360548e39","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-02 18:49:19","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":850002,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"HumanAlignmentStudyupdate.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6362540/v1_covered_4a775ec3-955c-4fd8-9aab-a9cccd30c974.pdf"},{"id":81848477,"identity":"b1e9c90c-23eb-40a8-9eed-ec419171101c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-02 18:41:18","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":3707683,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryInformationupdate.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6362540/v1/0eec39cc7050be51632f3c78.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Human-Alignment Influences the Utility of AI-assisted Decision Making","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6362540/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6362540/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Whenever an AI model is used to predict a relevant (binary) outcome in AI-assisted decision making, it is widely agreed that, together with each prediction, the model should provide an AI confidence value. However, it has been unclear why decision makers have often difficulties to develop a good sense on whento trust a prediction using AI confidence values. Very recently, Corvelo Benz and Gomez Rodriguez have argued that, for rational decision makers, the utility of AI-assisted decision making is inherently bounded by the degree of alignment between the AI confidence values and the decision maker’s confidence ontheir own predictions. In this work, we empirically investigate to what extent the degree of alignment actually influences the utility of AI-assisted decision making. To this end, we design and run a large-scale human subject study (n = 703) where participants solve a simple decision making task—an online card game—assisted by an AI model with a steerable degree of alignment. Our results show a positive association between the degree of alignment and the utility of AI-assisted decision making. In addition, our results also show that post-processing the AI confidence values to achieve multicalibration with respect to the participants’ confidence on their own predictions increases both the degree of alignment and the utility of AI-assisted decision making.","manuscriptTitle":"Human-Alignment Influences the Utility of AI-assisted Decision Making","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-05-02 18:41:13","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6362540/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-06-04T08:01:12+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-05-22T16:36:03+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-05-09T12:25:17+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"321717873951608118311452439171837855415","date":"2025-05-04T20:25:55+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"151558422833156596191051152598737758056","date":"2025-04-30T06:31:24+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"309590359637754590191420492937204713532","date":"2025-04-29T09:23:36+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-04-28T08:49:12+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-04-16T18:13:59+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2025-04-14T07:01:27+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-04-11T06:45:30+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Scientific Reports","date":"2025-04-02T15:03:02+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"460bd2dd-6cef-46c5-a865-7765d1fee33b","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 2nd, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":47929741,"name":"Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing/Computer science"},{"id":47929742,"name":"Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-07-15T14:38:18+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-05-02 18:41:13","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6362540","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6362540","identity":"rs-6362540","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}