{"id":274,"date":"2018-05-28T23:24:51","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T23:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/arts\/?p=274"},"modified":"2021-03-08T01:06:07","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T01:06:07","slug":"you-may-be-wrong-but-you-may-be-right-exploring-biases-with-sven-van-de-wetering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/arts\/2018\/05\/28\/you-may-be-wrong-but-you-may-be-right-exploring-biases-with-sven-van-de-wetering\/","title":{"rendered":"You May Be Wrong, But You May Be Right: Exploring Biases with Sven Van de Wetering"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u201cPeople who think they\u2019re always right are almost always wrong. People who are always willing to consider the possibility they\u2019re wrong tend to be right much more often,\u201d says associate psychology professor Sven Van de Wetering.<\/p>\n

It is this basic conundrum that Van de Wetering wanted to explore in a course he\u2019s designing — one that looks at ideological biases from a psychological perspective. Heuristics, Biases and Critical Thinking<\/em>, will be available in Winter 2019 and Van de Wetering sat down with the College of Arts blog to talk about his inspiration for this new offering.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know a huge amount about how we, as human beings, fool ourselves,\u201d says Van de Wetering. In fact, he says, there is no shortage of psychological literature on the topic and he recently found a book that listed 99 different biases, which he says isn\u2019t even complete.<\/p>\n

What isn\u2019t discussed as much is how to recognize these biases in your own thinking and how to account for this not only in research, but in day-to-day discussions.<\/p>\n

One of the things that led him to the topic is a recent crisis in his field of social psychology, where liberal thinkers have been accused of shutting out their more conservative-minded colleagues. Van de Wetering was at first determined to do some research into this question, but eventually he and his research assistant, Flora Oswald realized that what social psychologists really need is more help identifying their biases from the outset. He considered developing a workshop for his peers, but decided that those who chose to attend such a program were probably already aware of the need to take other perspectives into account.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe, what I need to do instead, is catch them young,\u201d he told himself.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Van de Wetering, who has been teaching psychology at UFV for 20 years and has access to a new crop of students every semester, is in a good position to do this. Encouraged by Oswald, he came up with a 13-week course in about 20 minutes. Still he wasn\u2019t sure how interested students would be in the idea of studying their own prejudices and biases, so he offered a prototype in winter 2018. The response, he said, was overwhelming.<\/p>\n

Moving away from the typical lecture format, Van de Wetering asked students to do a great deal of reading ahead of time and then to spend class time discussing real-world issues through the lens of various biases. Issues like: should there be a ban on pit-bulls? (an interesting topic, but one Van de Wetering says he\u2019ll probably never use again, as it was too inconclusive.)<\/p>\n

Van de Wetering also made it clear from the outset that the students would have input into the way the class ran.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust about my first line . . . was \u2018I am not the only smart person in the room. I\u2019m counting on you guys to help me figure out what it is we\u2019re actually doing to think critically in this course,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Students, he says, loved being so involved. \u201cI think I\u2019ve touched a nerve \u2013 I think I\u2019m offering something that they really, really want: relevance and an active role in the overall design of the course.\u201d<\/p>\n

With algorithms constantly directing content on our social media channels to things we\u2019ve shown interest in before, Van de Wetering thinks a class about biases is particularly relevant today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are actually seeking the truth, having people echoing your prejudices back to you is not a good thing,\u201d he says. \u201cYou want people to challenge you even if it turns out that they\u2019re ultimately wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Few Examples of <\/strong>Cognitive Biases<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n