09 FEB 2018 by ideonexus
Bias in Praise VS Punishment and Reversion to the Mean
I had the most satisfying Eureka experience of my career while attempting to teach flight instructors that praise is more effective than punishment for promoting skill-learning. When I had finished my enthusiastic speech, one of the most seasoned instructors in the audience raised his hand and made his own short speech, which began by conceding that positive reinforcement might be good for the birds, but went on to deny that it was optimal for flight cadets. He said, “On many occasions I ha... 1 
notes
notesUser Cortesoft has a good analogy for this:
"Flip 100 coins. Take the ones that 'failed' (landed tails) and scold them. Flip them again. Half improved! Praise the ones that got heads the first time. Flip them again. Half got worse :(
"Clearly, scolding is more effective than praising."
(source)
See also Regression Fallacy
06 JAN 2018 by ideonexus
American Exceptionalism Prevents Americans from Recognizi...
Americans enjoy lower qualities of life on every single indicator that you can possibly think of. Life expectancy in France and Spain is 83 years, but in America it’s only 78 years — that’s half a decade of life, folks. The same is true for things like maternal mortality, stress, work and leisure, press freedom, quality of democracy — every single thing you can think of that impacts how well, happily, meaningfully, and sanely you live is worse in America, by a very long way. T... 1 notes
notes12 NOV 2015 by ideonexus
Three Kinds of Chauvinists
VEDANTAM: She says she divided the men who had stereotypes about her into three categories.
DUKE: One was the flirting chauvinists, and that person was really viewing me in a way that was sexual.
VEDANTAM: With the guys who were like that, Annie could make nice.
DUKE: I never did go out on a date with any of them, but you know, it was kind of flirtatious at the table. And I could use that to my advantage.
VEDANTAM: And then there was the disrespecting chauvinist. Annie says these players ...Folksonomies: bias
Folksonomies: bias
1 notes
notes...and how a female poker player used their bias against them at the poker table.
26 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
Confirmation Bias
Numerous studies have demonstrated that people generally give an excessive amount of value to confirmatory information, that is, to positive or supportive data. The "most likely reason for the excessive influence of confirmatory information is that it is easier to deal with cognitively" (Gilovich 1993). It is much easier to see how a piece of data supports a position than it is to see how it might count against the position. Consider a typical ESP experiment or a seemingly clairvoyant dream: ...
1 03 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
Religion is More than the Supernatural
Most developers are religious about technology
It’s true.
Don’t be ashamed, you are not alone. Myself, and just about everyone else, is with you.
Some of use are recovering from our self-imposed brain washing. Others of us are blissfully unaware of our predicament. But most of us have at least one religion we’ve managed to craft ourselves.
It is perfectly natural because most programmers got into the field of software development because they were passionate about it.... 1 notes
notesProgrammers are religious about their technology choices. What other biases are we religious about?
27 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Psychology Studies Sample WEIRD Humans
[This paper is] about another exotic group: people from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and
Democratic (WEIRD)societies. In particular, it’s about the Western, and more specifically
American, undergraduates who form the bulk of the database in the experimental branches of
psychology, cognitive science, and economics, as well as allied fields(labeled the “behavioral
sciences”).
[...]
Who are the people studied in behavioral science research? A recent analysis of the top
journa... 1 notes
notesA culture not representative of the species.
13 APR 2013 by ideonexus
How the Brain Handles Novelty and Routine
When faced with complexity, our first response is to retreat to the familiar, even if the familiar means failing. But in addition to reverting to what is familiar, we also have another reaction: fear.
We are hardwired to perceive real change as threatening, so we instinctively reject it. Sure, a few of us have the courage and tenacity to attack the complex, the unknown, and the risky. After all, this is hiow new discoveries are made.
But many more of us do not.
Why not?
It turns out t... 1 notes
notesThe frontal cortex is wired to handle novelty and the basal ganglia wired to handle routine, when we live in a world of constant novelty, is our gut reaction to oppose everything?
12 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Hedgehogs Do Worse the More Information They Have
Academic experts like the ones that Tetlock studied can suffer from the same problem. In fact, a little knowledge may be a dangerous thing in the hands of a hedgehog with a Ph.D. One of Tetlock’s more remarkable findings is that, while foxes tend to get better at forecasting with experience, the opposite is true of hedgehogs: their performance tends to worsen as they pick up additional credentials. Tetlock believes the more facts hedgehogs have at their command, the more opportunities they ... 1 notes
notesThey selectively take in the information to reaffirm their biases.
08 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Positive Bias in the 2-4-6 Task
The boy's expression grew more intense. "This is a game based on a famous experiment called the 2-4-6 task, and this is how it works. I have a rule - known to me, but not to you - which fits some triplets of three numbers, but not others. 2-4-6 is one example of a triplet which fits the rule. In fact... let me write down the rule, just so you know it's a fixed rule, and fold it up and give it to you. Please don't look, since I infer from earlier that you can read upside-down."
The boy said ...
2 A game to demonstrate we jump to conclusions and seek to confirm our biases.
05 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Using Google is Like Watching Fox News or MSNBC
That's something I picked up in science, I suppose -- wanting to know the other side of the story, testing one's ideas against the alternative. Of course, one is naturally predisposed to what one already believes. Early nurturing and education is not to be discounted. One might even have a genetic nudge toward liberality or conservatism. Still, it behooves one to approach alternative views with an open mind, or at least as open as one can manage.
[...]
And now I read Sue Halpern reviewing ...Folksonomies: bias
Folksonomies: bias
1 notes
notesThe search engine caters its results to your biases.
