Meta‐informational cue inconsistency and judgment of information accuracy: Spotlight on intelligence analysis

Meta-information is information about that can be used as cues to guide judgments and decisions. Three types of meta-information are routinely in intelligence analysis source reliability, credibility, classification level. The first two intended speak quality (in particular, the probability accurate), level describe information's security sensitivity. Two experiments involving professional analysts (N = 25 27, respectively) manipulated a 6 (source reliability) × (information credibility) 2 (classification) repeated-measures design. Ten additional items were retested measure intra-individual reliability. Analysts judged accuracy based on its meta-informational profile. In both experiments, was sensitive ordinal position scales directionality linguistic terms anchor levels scales. Directionality led group three each scale positive fourth fifth negative group, with neutral term “cannot judged” falling between these groups. Critically, reliability credibility cue inconsistency increased, there corresponding decrease intra-analyst interanalyst agreement, effective utilization. Neither experiment found significant effect judgments.