It’s tough to eliminate bias and noise from any decision we make, so how do we deal with all the noise and bias in our life? As Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke discuss in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, prioritizing what’s most important can help.
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Noise Vs. Bias
There is a lot of talk in our society today about eliminating bias from decision making, but it turns out that even if you could do that there are things influencing your decisions that are still beyond your control.
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of noise vs. bias.
Best of “Higher Ed:” The Biases We Bring To Information And Learning (They’re Complicated)
This episode was originally posted on Jan. 13, 2019.
Many external factors can impact the quality and effectiveness of a learning experience: the teacher; the other students in a class; the school’s resources; even the student’s surroundings and home. But what about the internal factors? In this episode of KUT’s podcast “Higher Ed,” Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger and KUT’s Jennifer Stayton discuss the biases learners themselves bring to the information and process.
This episode was inspired by an experience Ed had in the classroom not too long ago. He had given the students a quote with some pretty declarative and forceful language and asked the students to discuss it and try to figure out who said it. As the students puzzled through who the speaker might be, Ed noticed something interesting.
He had given them a quote from Helen Keller, and Ed describes it as a “very strong quote, it was a very forceful quote; it was a quote that was about positivity, but it was strong…..While the conversation was going on, they [the students] themselves gave a gender to the individual,” says Ed. “My students kept saying ‘well, he meant this and he meant that.'”
Ed says gender was not the only metric students used to process and evaluate the quote.
“People thought this must be coming from an individual who is not a force of good in their mind’s eye,” says Ed, referring to the strong language of the quote, “and so therefore said ‘I don’t like the quote that much.’ The moment that some of them discovered that Helen Keller said this, then all of a sudden they looked at it again and said ‘ Oh, well, now I actually get it and I like it.'”
Bias based on perceptions of gender or authorship are just some of what learners bring to the table in and outside of the classroom. Listen to the full episode to hear more about bias and context and Ed’s provocative question “Is it possible that we can find interesting or good elements in people that maybe we don’t completely agree with, and how does that complicate the discussion or the conversation?”
It is also time for the solution to a puzzler about slicing and dicing. Don’t worry – it’s a piece of cake!
This episode was recorded on Dec. 4, 2018.
Higher Ed: The Biases We Bring To Information And Learning (They’re Complicated)
Many external factors can impact the quality and effectiveness of a learning experience: the teacher; the other students in a class; the school’s resources; even the student’s surroundings and home. But what about the internal factors? In this episode of KUT’s podcast “Higher Ed,” Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger and KUT’s Jennifer Stayton discuss the biases learners themselves bring to the information and process.
This episode was inspired by an experience Ed had in the classroom not too long ago. He had given the students a quote with some pretty declarative and forceful language and asked the students to discuss it and try to figure out who said it. As the students puzzled through who the speaker might be, Ed noticed something interesting.
He had given them a quote from Helen Keller, and Ed describes it as a “very strong quote, it was a very forceful quote; it was a quote that was about positivity, but it was strong…..While the conversation was going on, they [the students] themselves gave a gender to the individual,” says Ed. “My students kept saying ‘well, he meant this and he meant that.'”
Ed says gender was not the only metric students used to process and evaluate the quote.
“People thought this must be coming from an individual who is not a force of good in their mind’s eye,” says Ed, referring to the strong language of the quote, “and so therefore said ‘I don’t like the quote that much.’ The moment that some of them discovered that Helen Keller said this, then all of a sudden they looked at it again and said ‘ Oh, well, now I actually get it and I like it.'”
Bias based on perceptions of gender or authorship are just some of what learners bring to the table in and outside of the classroom. Listen to the full episode to hear more about bias and context and Ed’s provocative question “Is it possible that we can find interesting or good elements in people that maybe we don’t completely agree with, and how does that complicate the discussion or the conversation?”
It is also time for the solution to last week’s puzzler about slicing and dicing. Don’t worry – it’s a piece of cake!
This episode was recorded on Dec. 4, 2018.
Higher Ed: Confronting Gender-Based Academic Bias
The author of a summer op-ed in the New York Times (no, not that op-ed!) believes girls would benefit from more drilling on math to “break the cycle of dislike-avoidance-further dislike” and help them build confidence in their math skills (which research has shown are pretty similar to boys’ math skills). In this episode of KUT’s podcast “Higher Ed,” Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger and KUT’s Jennifer Stayton discuss the op-ed’s call for gender-based additional academic practice and how to undo lingering biases about gender and academic performance.
We hope the days are long gone in which girls were considered less skilled at math and the sciences, and boys were considered under-achievers in reading and language arts. The data don’t bear those differences out, but lingerings biases may still lead some students to be treated as if they are true – or to act as if they are true. In this episode, Ed discusses social science research that shows any effort that amplifies the bias – even by calling it out – can actually reinforce it. He also believes students should always be encouraged to improve their understanding and performance, regardless of their gender or the academic subject.
Listen on for our discussion as well as for the solution to last episode’s puzzler about the mysterious stamp switch.
This episode was recorded on Aug. 9, 2018.
Outcome Bias
We’re biased towards what we pay attention to, and we generally pay more attention to outcomes rather than process. Yet, if we really want to learn from our mistakes or our successes, we have to look at the process as well.
On this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke take on outcome bias.
Bias and Behavior
It’s no secret that this political season is a display of some interesting human behavior, and we’ve had a lot of listener questions about how biases form, the psychological impact of heated rhetoric, and what is going on “under the surface” of the American public?
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about how psychology can inform our discussions and debates as we try to swim through the murky waters of the modern American political campaign 2016.
Bias & Diversity
Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of bias, and the importance of diversity.