Challenge Your Cognitive Bias
Have you designed a particular way and think this is tried and tested and continue to do the same thing over and over again - cherry picking data to support your decisions rather than challenging them? This is is known as a bias and is not unfamiliar to the education design world; but the ability to challenge those biases can be hard. So, let's look at what they are, how you can challenge such biases and make informed decisions for your learner experience.
What is cognitive bias?
In the early 1970s, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the term ‘cognitive bias’ to describe people's systematic but purportedly flawed patterns of responses to judgment and decision problems. Put simply, your brain is trying to simplify information and to do that, it will revert to a bias you may have that will then influence your decision.
Who is impacted by cognitive bias?
Everyone. No-one wants to believe they are wrong or have made a decision based upon preconceived notions; but the truth is our judgement and how we make decisions is clouded by many factors. Everyone is biased so it is important to understand it and how you can overcome it.
What has it got to do with LX Design?
Consider when you are designing and why you make the decisions that you do; of course your bias impacts the decisions you make from the software you use to the activities you embed. Since there are over 100 different biases (Visual Capitalist, 2021); there are going to be a few that impact you more than others so I encourage you to familiarise yourself with them. There are 5 biases that I am going to focus on as I believe these have a huge impact on how you design; so let’s look at them and how you can overcome them.
Confirmation bias
We are tasked with making many different decisions based on the information we are receiving at any given time. Your mind will look for ways to support what you already believe, how things should look and you will rationalise and try to disconfirm any evidence to make if fit your belief. This is confirmation bias (Shermer, 2020).
Example: Consider when you are designing and determining which software you may implement. You may have had previous experiences with particular software, or how a course is designed that you believe works. You will provide reasons as to why this is the software you need to use and even if there is data that conflicts with your ideas; you will ignore that in favour of your belief. Consider how this will adversely affect your design.
Hindsight bias
Hindsight bias is when you become convinced you accurately predicted an event before it occurred. It causes overconfidence in your ability to predict other future events and may lead to unnecessary risks (Michael Shermer, 2021).
Authority bias (AKA Halo effect)
Think about your world, perhaps someone you follow on social media, or someone you've seen at a conference. Regardless of the platform, you follow them on social media or you attend a conference because you deem this person as important. In doing so, you think you should pay attention and attribute value to what they are saying. This is authority bias.
Example: Many years ago I was told by someone that ‘this isn’t the way you design’ - ‘you have to include …’; this was someone whom I thought was a leader in their field when really they had a big platform and a loud voice. Who are you listening to and how much value are you placing on what they say? Are you practicing critical thought? There is a massive digital transformation occurring at the moment and your experience matters. Be aware of authority bias and challenge what you are hearing and consider how this is influencing your design.
Anchoring bias
Have you ever relied on the very first piece of information you learnt and let that inform all of your future decisions? This is anchoring bias and occurs when you rely on pre-existing information to inform future decisions (Simply Psychology, 2021). It is used to set expectations of others by putting this information first.
Attentional bias
Attentional bias is the tendency to pay attention to some things while simultaneously ignoring others. It's the tendency to miss things that are right in front of you because your focus is most important.
Example: you need to select a polling tool in your course but you don’t have a big budget, so you are looking for something that will meet your needs but is also free. Your focus then becomes the ‘free’ software, all the meanwhile ignoring where the data is stored, the security of the information, and how learners will engage with it in a session.
How can you mitigate cognitive bias?
Shermer and Simply Psychology share some valuable insights on how to overcome different biases. Regardless of the bias you are experiencing, there are three key things you can do to ensure this doesn’t impact your design:
Awareness
Everyone is biased and the only way to challenge any bias is to be aware of it. The more you know about biases you are impacted by, the better.
Design with a critical friend
Remember, a critical friend is that person that doesn't agree with you just for the sake of it; they are the friend who brainstorms with you; calls out your biases; challenges your assumptions; and works with you to come up with solutions that are fit for purpose. This friend is invaluable in the design space and I encourage you to be one to someone else and hopefully they reciprocate the favour.
Challenge your own assumptions
It can be easier to do things the way you've always done them but it is important to ask why are you making different decisions and based on what? And if you are making sweeping assumptions, challenge them yourself.
Resources
Simply Psychology (2021) is a great resource that simplifies many psychological concepts that you may find useful in learning. This link is for cognitive bias and explains many more which you might align with.
The Michael Shermer Show - a great podcast which challenges the way you think in many different ways - so I encourage you listen to at least one podcast.
Visual Capitalist Cognitive Biases - a map of all 118 cognitive biases - I find this interesting to see just how many there are.
Now you are familiar with cognitive bias; reflect on how you think it might impact your design. How would it then impact learner experience? Feel free to share your thoughts below.
