Biases and Nudges in Operational Leadership: An Exploratory Study in Security Contexts

Abstract

This article presents an exploratory study on the influence of cognitive biases and nudges in decision-making within mission-oriented hierarchical leadership. The research is based on simulated scenarios applied to a sample of 42 participants, mostly from police forces, although the scenarios were designed around a military theoretical framework. The results reveal preliminary patterns of both positive and negative influence from certain biases (authority, availability, confirmation, social norms) and nudges (real-time feedback and reminders), which impact the effectiveness of decentralized leadership. The study highlights the potential of behavioral economics as a tool to enhance decision-making quality in operational contexts and proposes future research directions including larger samples and external validation.