The effects of visualization on judgment and decision-making: a systematic literature review

The visualization of information is a widely used tool to improve comprehension and, ultimately, decision-making in strategic management decisions as well as in a diverse array of other domains. Across social science research, many findings have supported this rationale. However, empirical results vary significantly in terms of the variables and mechanisms studied as well as their resulting conclusion. Despite the ubiquity of information visualization with modern software, there is little effort to create a comprehensive understanding of the powers and limitations of its use. The purpose of this article is therefore to review, systematize, and integrate extant research on the effects of information visualization on decision-making and to provide a future research agenda with a particular focus on the context of strategic management decisions. The study shows that information visualization can improve decision quality as well as speed, with more mixed effects on other variables, for instance, decision confidence. Several moderators such as user and task characteristics have been investigated as part of this interaction, along with cognitive aspects as mediating processes. The article presents integrative insights based on research spanning multiple domains across the social and information sciences and provides impulses for prospective applications in the realm of managerial decision-making.