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JAS situations can also arise in more common settings that typical individuals can
experience. A very common JAS arises when individuals receive advice from doctors
and other medical professionals. For example, an individual with diabetes might receive
specific advice about better controlling their blood sugar after a situation that required
that they go to the hospital. That individual then may seek second opinions about that
advice before coming to a decision regarding whether or not they will change their
behavior to fit more with those recommendations. As is found in the JAS research,
people often do not fully utilize doctors' recommendations, often to their own detriment.
In each of these situations, being able to figure out the way to make the advice system
most efficient and productive has clear benefits. Understanding the most effective ways
to give advice has great potential in training programs for advisors, mentors, and in
management training as a whole. An example of such application is seen in the work by
Wilkins et al. (1999) on the development of the Raven and CoRaven decision-making
aids used by the military to filter and represent massive amounts of battlefield data for
strategic planning. Using principles derived from JAS research, the authors were able to
analyze and better understand the aids, with the result being a more effective system
that makes battlefield decision-making less of a risky process. In this situation, the
researchers treated the intelligent software as an advisor, and the commanding officer
as the judge. Under this assumption, the researchers then applied past and current JAS
research findings to critically evaluate the software with the hopes of improving its
functionality. This utilization of JAS research is an example of one of the most promising
and direct applications of the paradigm – collaborative technology, which can facilitate
decision-making processes that are too complex for human cognition alone.
Judge advisor systems research can also be applied to business, finance, education,
and many other fields in which hierarchical group-decision making is common.
Applications of such research could be used to make time-sensitive decisions in highimpact
situations such as emergency rooms more efficient and accurate, potentially
saving the lives of patients in need. The JAS framework could be effectively applied in
public affairs to increase the speed at which new policies are created and enacted.
Other direct and indirect applications are possible for virtually every situation in which
hierarchical group decision-making exists.
Future Research Directions
JAS research is still a developing field with growth needed in a couple key areas. One
area of interest is a deeper understanding about the motives of decision-makers in JAS
situations beyond decision accuracy and autonomy. In the real world, decision-makers
frequently have many motives beyond making the most accurate and informed decision,
often due to social influences. Some additional motives that have already been cited
include attempting to diffuse responsibility for a decision, minimizing the amount of effort
on behalf of the decision-maker, and maintaining good rapport with the advisor(s).
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