Week 6: Biases of the self

1. Week 6: Biases of the self 3.10.09 Feedback on the feedback…

2. Review • Self • Efficacy • Concept • Esteem/Worth • Schemas

3. Where we are & where we are going • Motivation • Person perception • Know thyself • Biases of the self • Perceivers • Perceived • Complicating situations • Interpersonal relationships

4. Overview of the day • Debriefing the debate • Intuitive scientist-related biases • Self-related biases • Barry Manilow related biases • Mechanisms of bias • Mock up a study • Preview

5. Goal for today • Figure out which biases you think you need to worry about in the educational environments that you will inhabit • Come up with at least 1 strategy for ameliorating one of these biases • Get experience designing a study that would test whether one such strategy would indeed work to ameliorate said bias

6. Debriefing the debate • What arguments do people remember? • Lyn’s picture at the board regarding self-efficacy • Possibly salient due to the visual, her movement from back to front of room, her personality, and because it framed a big picture argument • In the groups that had male members, the males usually started or led the conversation • Self-efficacy is the only teachable dimension debated 6

7. Debriefing the debate • Were roles used? How? • Kimya’s group started out with roles but almost immediately everyone took on multiple roles • Hypothetically… • Roles might have led more members of the group to participate because they would have felt responsible to contribute to their group because no one else had their role • If roles were assigned randomly you might miss out on skills or strengths of individual members 7

8. Debriefing the debate • Motivational traits of the task • The debate structure seemed to focus students’ minds on the tensions between the different sides • Being the last group might make students less motivated to listen to different sides and more motivated to think about their own argument • Motivation might be related which side a student is required to argue in favor of. • Tension around how seriously to take the role play and how to communicate the content of an argument was motivating • The degree to which competition and cooperation are balance may impact motivation. 8

9. Intuitive scientist biases

10. Where will the class estimate that there are more murders: Detroit or Michigan? (between subjects design) • Significantly more in MI • More in MI • About the same • More in Detroit • Significantly more in Detroit

11. Availability Heuristic (of Murders)

12. Recall this question… Later this semester I will flip a (fair) coin. With the coin toss you will be given these odds: 50% chance that you will win $150, 50% chance that you will lose $100 Would you accept this gamble: Yes or No? Which answer did you put down? • Yes • No

13. What % of your classmates put the same answer as you? • 0-9% • 10-19% • 20-29% • 30-39% • 40-49% • 50-59% • 60-69% • 70-79% • 80-89% • 90-100%

14. False Consensus & Uniqueness • Consensus – we overestimate how much others share our opinions & negative actions • “Eat at Joe’s” • Uniqueness – we underestimate that others share our positive actions/abilities and virtues

15. Bias scorecard • Self serving • False consensus • False uniqueness • Intuitive scientist • Availability heuristic • Illusory correlation • Illusion of control • Confirmation bias • Ignoring N • Ignoring baseline rates • Loss aversion • First instinct fallacy

16. Biases of the self

17. Better than average:What is the average % of your classmates on social skills? • 0-9% • 10-19% • 20-29% • 30-39% • 40-49% • 50-59% • 60-69% • 70-79% • 80-89% • 90-100%

18. Better than average:What is the average % of your classmates on motivation to do well in school? • 0-9% • 10-19% • 20-29% • 30-39% • 40-49% • 50-59% • 60-69% • 70-79% • 80-89% • 90-100%

19. Better than average:What is the average % of your classmates on intelligence? • 0-9% • 10-19% • 20-29% • 30-39% • 40-49% • 50-59% • 60-69% • 70-79% • 80-89% • 90-100%

20. Better than average:What is the average % of your classmates on attractiveness? • 0-9% • 10-19% • 20-29% • 30-39% • 40-49% • 50-59% • 60-69% • 70-79% • 80-89% • 90-100%

21. Better than average:What is the average % of your classmates on auto-mechanics? • 0-9% • 10-19% • 20-29% • 30-39% • 40-49% • 50-59% • 60-69% • 70-79% • 80-89% • 90-100%

22. Better than average:What is the average % of your classmates on knowledge of social taboos in E. European countries? • 0-9% • 10-19% • 20-29% • 30-39% • 40-49% • 50-59% • 60-69% • 70-79% • 80-89% • 90-100%

23. Better-than-average • Classic Lake Wobegon effect • Kruger’s amendment: Lake Wobegon Be Gone! • Overconfidence in social prediction • Unskilled & unaware of it • Individuals who lack the metacognitive awareness to assess their own skills

24. Hindsight bias Events are obvious after you know the real answer.

25. Question of the Day #2 Is anybody related to/friends with Barry Manilow?* *Barry was not harmed at all during the Gilovich et al study, though it is possible that his self-esteem would take a hit if he were an avid reader of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

26. Spotlight Effect

27. Class Discussion: Connecting the spotlight effect (SE) and the classroom Student participation in class: When someone makes a mistake and thinks everyone else is focused on that mistake, it is difficult to re-engage them. Teacher and the spotlight effect: Teachers tend to avoid teaching in front of each other; making them aware of the SE may make them more comfortable The SE might help teachers reflect on their own practice but it can be overwhelming too Thinking that actions are shameful and unforgettable to other people When teachers know their material really well they may experience habituation in more easily so that they are not as influenced by the SE Experienced teachers might habituate to the SE, allowing them to develop habits of teaching that do not promote learning

28. Spotlight on connections to the classroom • Implications for education • Students • Speaking up/participating in class (teens) • Teacher calling attention to student publicly • Teachers • Aren’t they actually in the spotlight? • Implications for theories • Leary & sociometer hypothesis • Performance goals

29. Bias scorecard • Self serving • False consensus • False uniqueness • Better than average & overconfidence effects • Hindsight bias • Spotlight effect • Intuitive scientist • Availability heuristic • Illusory correlation • Illusion of control • Confirmation bias • Ignoring N • Ignoring baseline rates • Loss aversion • First instinct fallacy

30. Class Discussion- Which bias is most worrisome? • Better than average & overconfidence effects: • May lead students to underestimate how much they prepare or work • Ignoring N and baseline rates: • May lead teachers to stereotyping about certain types of students as a result of interactions with a small number of children like him/her • Confirmation bias: • A teacher may feel that he/she is a really great teacher because some of the students are succeeding and that it is the students’ fault when they are not succeeding • Having teachers observe each other and give feedback about teaching practices with the intent to look for ways to reframe the • Having teachers observe the struggling students in other classes where they behave differently 30

31. Mechanisms: Cognitive consistency • Potential explanation for bias & other odd behaviors • Cognitive dissonance • Self-perception theory • Insufficient justification in education (turning play into work)

32. Self Stuff Self-concept/self-schema Self-esteem Self-efficacy Self-knowledge Errors/tools of intuitive scientists Availability heuristic Illusory correlation Illusion of control Confirmation bias Ignoring N Ignoring baseline rates Loss aversion First instinct fallacy Self-serving bias False consensus False uniqueness Better than average & overconfidence effects Hindsight bias Spotlight effect Mechanisms Anchoring & adjusting Self-referencing effect Self-fulfilling prophecy Cognitive consistency/dissonance To remember

33. For 3/17… • Person perception (social perspective taking) • Ability & motivation • Fiske – overview of social cognition & understanding others; cognitive misers • Ames – empirical study; focuses on 2 strategies we use: stereotyping; anchoring & adjusting • Why do educators need to be good at this? • To what extent/in what ways do students need to be able to do this? • Wittipedia