User:Mxrwho/The Final Project/Part II/Workshop

In order to proceed to the second part of the project I will conduct a workshop on the topic of biases:

Part I (25'): Introduction regarding my project and the colloqium (10') and quiz (15')

The workshop will begin with a (Kahoot!) quiz, challenging common knowledge about what biases are and how they affect us.

Possible questions:

(1) How many types of biases are generally recognized?

(2) How many types of cognitive biases are there?

(3) Are biases negative, positive or both?

(4) Are biases innate or learned?

(5) What are biases in science and engineering?

Part II (30') Discussion

A few words regarding relevant research and discussion with the group. This part can become integrated to the quiz in Part I. In this sense, the quiz can be used as a prompting mechanism for providing information and for further discussion.

Part III (60') Interviews

The participants will be asked to record their answers to a series of questions regarding biases and upload them to a relevant wiki page. (Parts of) their answers will be used in the songs that will be the 'material' outcome of this part of the project.

The questions:

(1) What are biases according to your personal experience?

(2) In what ways have you been exposed to biases?

(3) How do they make you feel.

(4) How do you deal with them?

(5) What are your own biases?

Part IV (35') Discussion and closing

I would like to discuss how this session and these questions have affected the participants' understanding of biases. I would also like to point out to them that their understanding and answers may have been affected due to our opening quiz and discussion and that every little thing may contribute to the building up or the dismantling of biases.

Cheat seat There are many types of cognitive biases, and they can be categorized in different ways depending on context, but here’s a broad overview of some of the main types: 1. Cognitive Biases

These are systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment.

   Confirmation Bias: Tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms one’s preconceptions.
   Anchoring Bias: Relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered (the "anchor") when making decisions.
   Hindsight Bias: Belief that an event was predictable after it has already happened.
   Availability Heuristic: Overestimating the importance of information that comes readily to mind.
   Dunning-Kruger Effect: Overestimating one's abilities in areas where one lacks knowledge or expertise.
   Status Quo Bias: Preference for the current state of affairs over change.
   Negativity Bias: Tendency to focus more on negative events than positive ones.
   Framing Effect: Drawing different conclusions based on how the same information is presented.
   Sunk Cost Fallacy: Continuing a course of action due to previously invested resources (time, money, effort).
   Self-Serving Bias: Attributing success to oneself and failures to external factors.

2. Social Biases

Biases that relate to interactions with others or how individuals perceive groups.

   In-group Bias: Favoring members of one’s own group over those of others.
   Out-group Homogeneity Bias: Tendency to see out-group members as more similar to each other than they really are.
   Stereotyping: Overgeneralizing about a group based on limited information.
   Halo Effect: Allowing one positive trait to overshadow other aspects of a person or situation.
   Horn Effect: The opposite of the Halo Effect, where one negative trait overshadows others.
   Attribution Bias: Attributing others' behavior to their character rather than situational factors.
   Fundamental Attribution Error: Underestimating situational influences and overestimating personal characteristics in others' behaviors.
   Just-World Hypothesis: Believing that people get what they deserve, leading to victim-blaming.

3. Memory Biases

Biases that affect the way we recall past events.

   Rosy Retrospection: Remembering past events as being more positive than they were.
   Misinformation Effect: Memory distortion due to misleading information presented after an event.
   False Memory: Recollection of events that did not actually occur.
   Spacing Effect: Tendency to remember items better when studied at spaced intervals rather than all at once.
   Recency Effect: Tendency to remember the last items in a sequence better than earlier items.
   Primacy Effect: Remembering the first items in a sequence better than later ones.

4. Decision-Making Biases

Biases that distort judgment or decisions.

   Loss Aversion: The tendency to prefer avoiding losses over acquiring equivalent gains.
   Overconfidence Bias: Overestimating one's knowledge, abilities, or control over outcomes.
   Base Rate Fallacy: Ignoring statistical information in favor of specific information.
   Gambler’s Fallacy: Believing that past random events affect the probability of future ones (e.g., thinking a coin toss is "due" for heads after a string of tails).
   Optimism Bias: Belief that negative events are less likely to happen to oneself.
   Endowment Effect: Valuing things more simply because they belong to you.

5. Motivational Biases

Biases driven by emotions or desires.

   Wishful Thinking: Accepting information or outcomes that align with desires or hopes.
   Egocentric Bias: Overestimating the extent to which others share your views, attitudes, and beliefs.
   Optimistic Bias: Expecting favorable outcomes over realistic outcomes.
   Belief Bias: Judging an argument based on the believability of its conclusion rather than on the logical structure of the argument.

6. Cultural Biases

Biases rooted in cultural perspectives or norms.

   Ethnocentrism: Judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one's own culture.
   Cultural Myopia: The tendency to think that one's own culture is superior to others or is the "default."
   Language Bias: Judging people based on the language or dialect they use.

These biases influence our perception, memory, judgment, and decision-making processes, often leading us to flawed conclusions or irrational actions. There are many specific biases, with researchers identifying hundreds depending on the field of study.

Beyond cognitive biases, there are other broad categories of biases that influence thinking, decision-making, and behavior. These biases can manifest in various contexts, including technology, science, and everyday life. Some of the major types include: 1. Statistical Biases

These occur in data collection, analysis, and interpretation, leading to incorrect or misleading results.

   Selection Bias: When certain groups or data are more likely to be selected than others, leading to unrepresentative samples.
   Survivorship Bias: Concentrating on the people or things that "survived" a process and overlooking those that didn't because they are no longer visible.
   Sampling Bias: Collecting data from a sample that does not accurately reflect the larger population.
   Confirmation Bias in Research: Tendency for researchers to unintentionally (or intentionally) favor results that support their hypotheses.
   Publication Bias: The tendency for journals to publish positive findings over negative or inconclusive results.

Besides cognitive biases, what other types of biases are there?

There are more than 10 sorts of widely recognized bias categories. These include cognitive, technological (algorithmic), institutional and cultural biases, among others.

2. Algorithmic Biases (Technological Biases)

Biases that occur in the design and implementation of algorithms, particularly in machine learning and AI systems.

   Training Data Bias: When algorithms are trained on data that reflects existing social biases (e.g., gender, race), leading to biased outputs.
   Automation Bias: Over-reliance on automated systems or algorithms, trusting them over human judgment even when they make errors.
   Overfitting: A model becomes biased towards the specific training data and performs poorly on unseen data.
   Bias in Predictive Policing: Algorithms used in policing that are biased due to over-policing in certain communities, leading to feedback loops.

3. Cultural and Societal Biases

These biases are ingrained in social norms, values, or structures and can affect how different groups are perceived or treated.

   Gender Bias: Unequal treatment or assumptions about individuals based on gender. Example: assuming leadership qualities are more associated with men.
   Racial Bias: Discrimination or stereotyping based on race. Example: Assuming certain races are more likely to engage in criminal activity.
   Class Bias: Favoritism or prejudice based on socioeconomic status. Example: Assuming wealthier people are more competent.
   Religious Bias: Discrimination or preference based on religion. Example: Prejudice against certain religious groups.
   Age Bias: Stereotyping or discriminating against individuals based on their age (e.g., "too young" or "too old" for certain tasks).
   Heteronormativity: Bias that assumes heterosexuality is the norm and treats other sexual orientations as deviations.

4. Media Biases

These biases arise in journalism, reporting, and the dissemination of information.

   Partisan Bias: Media outlets favoring one political party or ideology over others.
   Sensationalism: The tendency to focus on exciting, dramatic, or shocking stories rather than more important but less flashy topics.
   Gatekeeping Bias: Media controlling which stories are covered and which are ignored, thereby shaping public perception.
   Framing Bias: The way a news story is framed (e.g., language used, choice of facts) can influence how it is interpreted.

5. Economic Biases

Biases related to financial systems, markets, and economic decision-making.

   Market Bias: Preferences for established market players over new entrants, which can stifle innovation.
   Price Anchoring: People base their decisions on a reference price even if it’s irrelevant or misleading (e.g., sales discounts).
   Risk Aversion Bias: A tendency to avoid risks even when the potential rewards outweigh the potential downsides.
   Hyperbolic Discounting: The tendency to prefer smaller, immediate rewards over larger, future rewards.

6. Institutional Biases

These refer to biases that are embedded in the policies, practices, and structures of organizations or institutions.

   Systemic Racism: When policies and practices within an institution perpetuate inequalities based on race.
   Glass Ceiling Bias: Invisible barriers within organizations that prevent certain groups, especially women and minorities, from advancing.
   Educational Bias: Inequities in education systems, such as underfunded schools in marginalized areas or biased curricula.

7. Perceptual Biases

These biases are related to how people perceive the world and the stimuli around them.

   Visual Bias: Tendency to give preference to information that is presented visually, potentially overlooking other important types of data.
   Auditory Bias: Giving more weight to verbal information over visual or textual information.
   Size Bias: Larger objects or ideas are often given more attention or assumed to be more important than smaller ones.
   Perceptual Contrast Effect: When the perception of something is influenced by comparisons to recent experiences (e.g., a moderate option looks more reasonable next to an extreme one).

8. Implicit Biases

These are subconscious biases that influence behavior and attitudes, often without the individual being aware of them.

   Implicit Racial Bias: Subconscious preferences or aversions based on race, often reflected in discriminatory behaviors.
   Implicit Gender Bias: Unconscious assumptions about gender roles that affect judgment, decisions, and interactions.
   Affinity Bias: Preferring people who are similar to oneself, such as in appearance, background, or beliefs.
   Name Bias: Associating certain characteristics or assumptions with individuals based on their names (e.g., favoring names that sound more familiar or prestigious).

9. Political Biases

Biases that affect political judgments and behaviors.

   Ideological Bias: Viewing issues through the lens of one's own political beliefs and disregarding alternative viewpoints.
   Polarization Bias: Exaggerating differences between groups, leading to increasingly extreme positions and reduced willingness to compromise.
   Groupthink: When a desire for harmony or conformity in a group leads to irrational or dysfunctional decision-making.

10. Moral and Ethical Biases

These biases affect how we make decisions related to ethics and morality.

   Moral Licensing: After doing something good, individuals feel "licensed" to do something bad or morally questionable.
   Ethical Blind Spots: People fail to recognize unethical behavior in themselves while noticing it in others.
   Moral Luck: Judging a person or action based on outcomes that are beyond the individual's control, leading to uneven assessments of morality.

11. Environmental Biases

Biases arising from our relationship with and attitudes toward the environment.

   Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) Bias: People support environmental policies as long as they don't affect them personally (e.g., opposing a wind farm near their home).
   Pro-Environment Bias: A tendency to view behaviors or policies as good simply because they appear environmentally friendly, even if their actual impact is negligible.