Counterfactual thinking — reflecting on how one’s views could be different if they had grown up in different circumstances — works better to get people to be more understanding of opposing opinions. When working with gun control and gun rights advocates, Adam Grant told the former to imagine growing up in a hunting family, or growing up in Columbine for the latter. It helped both groups to have drastically lower animosity towards the other side. Read full article here
Education
Overcoming Bias
Kai Cheng’s professor had a brilliant scheme. In his first lecture, he promised that each lecture would feature a “Lie of the Day”. But why? It made his students more attentive and analytical, poring over every detail of his lecture and making sense of why things were true. It was such a powerful teaching method that his students digested his most technical lectures quite easily because they tried so hard to catch his lie. The kicker? There was no lie in that first lecture; he had lied about that too! Read full article here
Merv
August 17, 2022
