Week 14 — Bias and Decision-Making

Welcome to your Week 14 Start Here page.

Why this matters

A nursing student checking a first impression of a chart and a business major hearing an opening salary offer both need to catch how their own judgment tilts.

In plain language

This week turns the course's tests on your own thinking. A cognitive bias (a steady tilt in how you gather or weigh evidence) can steer a careful person without their noticing. The best-known one is confirmation bias, which means looking for and favoring evidence that fits what you already believe. You will also meet mental shortcuts that often work and sometimes mislead, such as letting a starting price shape what feels fair. Then you will practice four habits that help you catch these tilts in your own work, including your work on the library question.

• Already covered: Week 2 taught standard form and charity; Weeks 9 to 13 tested samples, causes, numbers, sources, and science.
• This week: confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, overconfidence, availability, anchoring, and four habits.
• How they connect: the outward tests now turn on your own reasoning.
• Where we're going next: Week 15, Reasoning About Values and the Course Synthesis.

Focus

Where does your own reasoning go wrong, and what habits catch it?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] choose a disconfirming test that could show a guess wrong
• [ ] audit your own search and state the opposing case in standard form
• [ ] name motivated reasoning, overconfidence, availability, and anchoring
• [ ] apply the four debiasing habits to a decision of your own

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 14 (about 45 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes) and the practice set (about 20 minutes).
3. Do the Argument Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
4. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: run the bias check on one judgment of your own and name the habit that would catch its tilt.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor if a step snags.

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