What are cognitive biases?

“the way a particular person understands events, facts, and other people, which is based on their own particular set of beliefs and experiences and may not be reasonable or accurate” (Cambridge Dictionary)

Omnipresent

Biases are omnipresent.

They guide not just our understanding, but also our decisions: they represent, in fact, “a simple procedure that helps find adequate, though often imperfect, answers to difficult questions”. (Kahneman)

Omnipresent

Biases are omnipresent.

They guide not just our understanding, but also our decisions: they represent, in fact, “a simple procedure that helps find adequate, though often imperfect, answers to difficult questions”. (Kahneman)

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Behaviour gaps

Some authors define cognitive biases as “shortcuts that humans use to reduce task complexity in judgment and choice, and biases are the results gaps between normative behavior and the heuristically determined behavior”. (Gonzalez)

Why should it matter to you?

If you are a teacher or educator

You may feel that you are experiencing a drop in your teaching effectiveness, and that at times it is very difficult to push through a message or concept. Or you may see your learners arguing opposing views that have no basis in facts. This is frequently due to biases impacting the cognition processes.

If you are a learner

As a learner, you may find it difficult at times to understand a concept or idea which somehow does not correspond to your beliefs. Or you may be pressed to make a decision based on scarce - or abundant - data and facts, and the need for a quick decision brings into play your biases, which in turn often leads to a less-than-perfect decision. You may also find it astonishing how your teachers and peers perceive the world, and how they act. We can help you understand why such situations arise, what cognitive processes are employed, and how you can improve your awareness and decision-making, including your communication with other people.

If you are just one curious human being

Aren’t we all?! Well, we certainly welcome your curiosity! On our platform you can learn about biases and you can find out which of them are most likely to influence your own behaviour and decisions. But, perhaps most importantly, you will be able to identify biases in other people’s behaviours! You will know why people act in a certain way, why they have a certain opinion of the world around us, and why they may think differently from you about events or facts which you have experienced together.

If you are a teacher or educator

You may feel that you are experiencing a drop in your teaching effectiveness, and that at times it is very difficult to push through a message or concept. Or you may see your learners arguing opposing views that have no basis in facts. This is frequently due to biases impacting the cognition processes.

If you are a learner

As a learner, you may find it difficult at times to understand a concept or idea which somehow does not correspond to your beliefs. Or you may be pressed to make a decision based on scarce - or abundant - data and facts, and the need for a quick decision brings into play your biases, which in turn often leads to a less-than-perfect decision. You may also find it astonishing how your teachers and peers perceive the world, and how they act. We can help you understand why such situations arise, what cognitive processes are employed, and how you can improve your awareness and decision-making, including your communication with other people.

If you are just one curious human being

Aren’t we all?! Well, we certainly welcome your curiosity! On our platform you can learn about biases and you can find out which of them are most likely to influence your own behaviour and decisions. But, perhaps most importantly, you will be able to identify biases in other people’s behaviours! You will know why people act in a certain way, why they have a certain opinion of the world around us, and why they may think differently from you about events or facts which you have experienced together.

How will it work?

Your actions will be recorded and will be used anonymously in aggregated form by researchers who will be looking for clues and patterns of behaviour.

You will receive indicative feedbacks which will outline the biases to which you seem least and most susceptible, and any individual patterns that our machine-learning algorithm will detect from your actions.

You will be working with a collection of videos which represent different scenarios, and we will ask you to make a judgement or a decision based on what you see.

You can also decide to spend more time interacting with the video resources, the more you interact with biases and learn about the lits of your own introspection - the less likely you are to be misled by biases when you form opinions or make decisions.

You can then use the resources in the platform to learn more about these biases.

What do we want to achieve?

Interactive

A visually rich and interactive experience of biases and biased decision-making

Data-driven

A data-driven approach to address cognitive biases via targeted videos and scenario-based interventions

Strategies

A set of teaching strategies for developing critical thinking, media literacy and communications skills

Tips

Strategies and tips to unblock, declutter and de-bias the learning process

 

How can you participate?

You can sign up for our waiting list and be among the first to get access to the dBias platform where you can face your biases and learn from them.

Who are we?

We are a diverse team of educators and researchers from 7 European countries. We have been exploring for several years specific issues related to applied cognitive science and cognitive linguistics, and we are looking into developing practical solutions for the world of education and training. Such solutions are always evidence-based and data-driven. Our profile is shaped by the organisations which we represent: from universities and digital education companies, to research and innovation organisations, communications and media production companies.

Need more information?