Biases and Their Influence

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A 50-minute lesson

1. 5 min
   Opening. Ask the question and let the class answer without correcting them: What news story about many victims did you read and quickly forget? And which story about a single victim stayed with you?
2. 15 min
   Reading. Biases That Lead Us to Neglect the Problems with the Most Victims (12 min read) and Biases That Incline Us to Neglect the Situation of Wild Animals (28 min read). For younger classes, read the “For kids” layer: Our brain has "shortcuts" that sometimes trick us. Here is one: we feel sadder about one little animal with a name and a photo than about millions of animals with no faces. That makes us forget about the biggest problems of all.
3. 15 min
   Discussion.

   • What news story about many victims did you read and quickly forget? And which story about a single victim stayed with you? (Biases That Lead Us to Neglect the Problems with the Most Victims)
   • What picture of nature did you learn at school and on TV? Did it show the young animals that do not survive? (Biases That Incline Us to Neglect the Situation of Wild Animals)
   • What big but unlikely risk do you tend to ignore in your own life? (Biases That Contribute to the Neglect of the Long Term and of S-Risks)
   • Try the Bias Detector on this site. Which bias did you recognize in yourself? (Cognitive Biases and Their Influence on Our Decisions That Affect Animals)
4. 10 min
   Activity. Project the Bias Detector tool for the class. Everyday situations for recognizing the biases from Volume X. Ask each group to justify its choices.
5. 5 min
   Wrap-up. Each person writes one sentence about what changed in their thinking. Compare it with the volume summary: Why do so many people, animal advocates included, neglect the biggest problems? This volume brings together the cognitive biases that distort our decisions about animals: scope neglect, the identifiable victim effect, status quo bias, motivated reasoning, moral licensing and many others.

Exercise sheet

1. According to the chapter, what is the difference between a bias and a fallacy?

   1. A fallacy is faulty reasoning that looks correct; a bias is a psychological tendency that leads to faulty reasoning
   2. There is no difference
   3. A bias is always conscious

2. Whom does the chapter recommend focusing persuasion efforts on?

   1. People who want to reason honestly, especially those who already want to reduce suffering
   2. People who reject every argument
   3. No one

3. What is the just-world hypothesis?

   1. The tendency to think that people and other beings get what they deserve
   2. A scientific theory about ecosystems
   3. A law

4. What does the chapter say about epistemic virtues?

   1. That, like moral virtues, they develop through habitual practice
   2. That they are innate
   3. That they do not exist

5. Why do we tend to neglect s-risks?

   1. Because of biases that make us give less importance to the future and to unlikely scenarios
   2. Because they are impossible
   3. Because biases do not exist

6. What strategy does the chapter recommend against these biases?

   1. Keeping an open mind and practicing changing our position in the face of good reasons
   2. Always trusting our intuitions
   3. Avoiding controversial topics

7. What is the bias blind spot?

   1. Noticing biases in others but not in yourself
   2. Not seeing animals
   3. Having vision problems

8. What is the illusory truth effect?

   1. The tendency to believe statements that are repeated many times
   2. Lying on purpose
   3. Forgetting facts

9. What is motivated reasoning?

   1. Judging with different rigor depending on whether we like the conclusion
   2. Reasoning with motivation
   3. A kind of math

10. Do people always believe the objections they raise?

    1. Yes
    2. No, sometimes they use them as excuses
    3. Only philosophers do

The lesson plan and exercises are a study layer written for this site. The texts read are by Luciano Carlos Cunha.