mar, 31 dic 2019
Confirmation bias is a tendency to look for, interpret, and recall information in ways that affirm our preconception. Whenever we encounter objective facts on an issue we look at them through the lens of our own beliefs. As a result, we see and overrate where the two intercept. The bias is strongest for emotionally charged issues or when we search for desired outcomes. This joke illustrates it quite well.
sáb, 30 ene 2021
There are only a few ideas that had as much of an impact on education as those of John Dewey. The American philosopher, psychologist and educator believed children to be active contributors and agents of their learning, and not just passive recipients of knowledge of previous generations. He believed that for knowledge to be acquired successfully, learning should be an experience. His Experiential Learning approach was based on four core principles.
mié, 31 mar 2021
The Dunning Kruger effect proposes that people with a little knowledge about a subject tend to view themselves as experts. Upon gaining more knowledge people start under-estimating their mastery realizing how much they don't know. Confidence returns as a person approaches true mastery.
vie, 15 oct 2021
Dietrich Bonhoeffer defined a stupid person has one who blindly follows irrational believes, refusing to entertain alternatives or listen to counter arguments. Thus a stupid person is not necessarily unintelligent but instead immoral. Such people, he said, are impossible to reason with until they are physically liberated and only then may then be receptive liberation of their mind.
mié, 1 dic 2021
In 1964 most people thought that the reason people ended up poor was a matter of biology and had little to do with the environment they grew up in. Urie Bronfenbrenner, a young psychologist, helped us understand that a child's environment also matters. When he was invented to explain his Ecological System Theory to the US congress, he made history.
dom, 19 dic 2021
"That which does not kill us makes us stronger", Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote. In this Sprouts special in collaboration with Stephen Hicks, we explore Nietzsche's division of the world into sheep and wolves, and how our morality, what we consider as good and bad, is the result of brute biological events.
jue, 1 sep 2022
When you look at the sun, sometimes it appears way larger than it actually is. The circle of light that makes it look bigger is called a halo. Beautiful women and handsome men produce the same effect. Their appearance can be so deceiving that we begin to attribute completely unrelated qualities to their looks. This bias is known as the halo effect.
jue, 20 abr 2023
In 1972, John B. Calhoun built an utopia for mice. Every aspect of Universe 25, as this particular model was called, was designed to cater for the well-being of its rodent residents, increase their lifespan, and allow them to mate. It was not the first time the ethologist had built a world for rodents. Colhoun had been creating Utopian environments for rats and mice since the 1940s, with consistent results: overpopulation leads to explosive violence and hyper-sexual activity, followed by asexuality, self-destruction, and extinction.
jue, 1 jun 2023
Chesterton's Fence is a simple rule of thumb that suggests you should never destroy a fence, change a rule, or alter a tradition if you do not understand why it was created in the first place. China's Four Pests Campaign during the Great Leap Forward shows the tragic consequences of meddling with things we do not fully understand.
lun, 13 may 2024
Moral disengagement is a process of cognitive restructuring that allows individuals to disassociate from their internal moral standards and behave unethically without feeling distressed. It is the story we tell ourselves to not feel bad about inhumane actions that normally would go against our moral principles, or the excuses we find to avoid feeling guilty about hurting others.