Automatic Bias and Naïve Realism
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Why You Think You're Right by Julia Galef
Figure 1. Levels of Evidence
Unpacking the Biases that Shape Our Beliefs by Mike Hartman
Beware Online "Filter Bubbles" by Eli Pariser
IMPLICIT BIAS AND NAÏVE REALISM
Online learners may not think about or discuss their biases throughout the course, module, or learning environment. Terms that surround bias like confirmation bias, implicit bias, implicit social cognition filter bubble, motivated reasoning, etc., are rarely used in classrooms. The terms significantly affect the daily interactions and lives of students even within the online community.
The subject of bias is considered immaterial in relation to online learning because online learners are removed from the classroom setting and feel there is a limited opportunity for bias to affect them. However, online learners require the Internet to access content and material and is is that avenue of entrance that has the potential to entrench learners in their own opinionated filter bubbles. Online learners experience a phenomenon called naïve realism, when they start to believe that their perception accurately depicts the truth.
What's Naïve Realism
Naïve realism is the theory that the world is perceived exactly as it is.
Naïve realism describes people's tendency to believe that they perceive the social work "as it is" -- as objective reality -- rather than as a subjective construction and interpretation of reality. This belief that one's perceptions are realistic, unbiased interpretations of the social world has two important implications.
First, that other, rational people will have similar perceptions as oneself.
Second, that other people who have different perceptions from oneself must be uninformed (e.g. not privy to the same information as oneself), irrational, or biased (Psychology).
What's Implicit Bias
Implicit Bias is known as implicit social cognition. It refers to attitudes or stereotypes that affect a person -- in an unconscious manner -- their understanding, actions, and decisions.
[Implicit biases are encompassed of] favorable and unfavorable assessments, are activated involuntarily and without an individual's awareness or intentional control. Residing deep in the subconscious, these biases are different from known biases that individuals may choose to conceal for the purposes of social and/or political correctness. Rather, implicit biases are not accessible through introspection (Kirwan Institute).
Related Terms
1. Motivated Reasoning
2. Confirmation Bias
3. Implicit Bias
4. Implicit Social Cognition
5. Filter Bubble
A filter bubble is the act of an intellectual isolation between a learner and the Internet such as search engine results or learning environments (Holone, 2016). It is imperative that eLearners are aware of the "filter bubble" as the Internet's algorithms can mask the truth.
What is a Filter Bubble?
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What Types of Bias Exist? by Grovo
Impact of Bias on Decision Making by Grovo
PSYCHOLOGY OF ELEARNING
In social psychology, naïve realism is how humans perceive the world around them objectively, and individuals or groups that disagree with that perception are inadvertently misunderstood based on inaccurate information or are biased.
Microlearning is not a theory or principle of instructional design curriculum (Salas, 2017). Rather it is an approach to learning deliverables. A theory that supports microlearning is cognitive load theory (CTL) initially articulated by John Weller in 1994. CTL formulates two principles:
First, the learner create a mental map, and
Second, knowledge is transferred to the learner's working memory (Salas, 2017).
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a great analogy of eLearning and implicit bias / naïve realism. Goldilocks enters the home of the three unsuspecting bears to consume their food and utilize their comforts (chair). In each scenario, Goldilocks has an implicit bias towards the world she entered:
This porridge is too hot, too cold, and finally just right! The same implicit bias mantra repeats with the chair. To each bear the porridge and chair is perfect to their reality and comfort level; however, Goldilocks enters the world and imports her reality on it, creating distortion.
Taking the Goldilocks and the Three Bear example, microlearning can be viewed, in a similar manner, to understand that it is not always the solution for learners, organizations, and environments. Microlearning does provide a means to disseminate information in small segments for learner digestibility. How individuals perceive microlearning affects the content being delivered (Shank, 2018). The naïve realism of Goldilocks shaped the world that she had entered; however that same concept is expanded when a learner enters a microlearning environment.
Take the above analogy and now translate that into bias behavior or activity among online learners. Grovo, a company that equips employees to thrive, created 20 microlearnings that highlight unconscious bias within modern learning (Grovo, 2018). To view all microlearnings visit Grovo.
"In a study put out by University of North Carolina, the clearest indicator of women getting a promotion is if their bosses had wives careers of their own. Sometimes those intangible good feelings we have about a person stem from how closely they align with our unconsciously bias idea of what's normal (Grovo, 2018).
These concepts and findings are transferable to online learning experiences. How teams function, learn, and contribute to a project or paper depends on implicit biases that may exist among individuals. Recognizing implicit biases can help correct a dysfunctional team and focus on impacting decision making in a positive manner.
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ONLINE IDENTITY
Identity is something we do, rather than simply something we are (Buckingham, 2008).
Imagine entering a classroom for instruction on the first day of the semester. Maybe you consider yourself outgoing and extroverted, so you greet everyone in the room with an enthusiastic "Hey!", as you start making small talk with the people sitting around you. Maybe you use a wheelchair to come through the door and you position it in an area of the room with lots of open space to maneuver around. Maybe you prefer to sit quietly and observe what's going on around you, as you listen to conversations that are happening among your classmates. Maybe when you walk into the room and look around at everyone else, you notice that they look different than you in certain outwardly apparent ways and you suspect that you might be the only person from your particular community group or culture who is present in this class.
Online Discussion via Canvas
Now imagine "entering" an online class. Which of the characteristics or attributes listed above would be automatically noticeable in a class discussion such as the one below? Which ones would not be noticeable?
David Buckingham suggests that identities are a collection of actions that we do. In other words, we regularly perform multiple aspects of ourselves as we show our characteristics to the world in different ways. Not all of our identities are met with positive responses or reactions from others - some of our identities may be stigmatized or even rejected (Meredith and Michelle have discussed implicit bias and how it can affect interaction). In the realm of online learning, we can easily imagine that some of what makes us who are is momentarily removed from consideration by others - if not erased entirely - by virtue of the fact that we do not necessarily "see" each other the way we would if we were face-to-face.
Because online learning removes the limitation of physical space, it offers the advantage of leveling the playing field, so to speak. One advantage of learning in online environments is be the enjoyment of a certain amount of anonymity. We can choose what to reveal about ourselves and when, if at all. While there is an equalizing force in the virtual classroom, we could argue that this increases the expectation of students to intentionally and explicitly share "who" they are. Again, this sharing of ourselves is a sort of performance of our identities.
As online learning becomes increasingly common and popular, there is a growing body of literature regarding the most important characteristics and practices of online learners. Many of these suggestions have to do with identity and social presence in online learning environments:
1. Online learners are constantly painting a portrait of who they are and showing others how they think when they participate in online discussions or group work with their classmates and their teachers.
2. Online learners continually develop some degree of comfort sharing information about themselves in the online classroom. This is similar to creating online profiles. Establishing a social presence through sharing one's own story is one way to do this.
3. Online learners are open-minded about sharing their experiences as part of the learning process. Whether one considers oneself an introvert or an extrovert, online learning removes the visual cues that prevent some individuals from feeling comfortable with expressing themselves freely. Self-guided, independent online learning also affords participants time to reflect before responding.
4. Online learners use written dialogue and communicate primarily textually. Written communication may be the only opportunity to form impressions of others. Because online learners are doing so much identity work online, their words are their actions.
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Comfort Zone Exercise by Michelle Poley
Understanding Unconscious Bias
by The Royal Society
Unconscious Bias Exercise form Diversity Consultant Scott Horton
Unconscious Bias Exercise form Diversity Consultant Scott Horton
Cultural Diversity Questionnaire
How to Clear Negative Energy
by Jack Canfield
Team 8 Demonstration
of Recognizing Cognitive Bias
OVERCOMING BIAS:
EXERCISES FOR THE ONLINE CLASSROOM
This website has explored many types of bias that are inherent in all education -- and some that are unique to the online learning environment. This page has been designed to offer a constructive response to a variety of biases that interfere with a positive and successful learning experience. Here are interactive exercises that can be used in online settings to help students overcome both the biases they recognize in themselves and those they may not. These exercises will also help build an engaged and vibrant community among your learners.
Demonstration: Comfort Zone
This exercise quickly allows every student to recognize how automatic it is to resist changes to one's habits and comfort zones. The demonstration also proves that just because something is different or new does not mean it needs to be rejected out of hand. Watch Faustino, Meredith, Susan, and Michelle as we give it a try. New habits don't take that long to make, if you have the right attitude!
Understanding Unconscious Bias
"The Royal Society is concerned with excellent science wherever and by whomever it is done and is committed to increasing diversity in STEM by seeking out participation from underrepresented groups...."
This short animation developed by Professor Uta Frith (2015) is distributed to all Society members to alert them to potential biases while making judgments.
Testing Unconscious Bias
Diversity and Inclusion consultant Scott Horton (2014), in this video, shares a revealing exercise about trust with a group of learners. They learn how their hidden biases might be unintentionally leading them to trust people like themselves more than they may trust others. Could the people YOU trust be an indicator of your unconscious biases? Notice how simply this exercise could move to an online discussion thread!
The Gold Standard of Implicit Bias Testing
Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and international collaboration among researchers who are interested in what they call "implicit social cognition." These are thoughts and feelings outside of a person's conscious awareness and control. The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases and provide a "virtual laboratory" for collecting anonymized data on the internet.
The project's series of Implicit Association Tests (IATs) at a Harvard University website. There are currently 14 of them there, and they measure unconscious bias by having test-takers quickly identify paired items. Each test takes about 10 minutes. The topics covered concern racial, religious, disability, and gender biases.
To the left is a short sample of how the test works, recorded by a member of Group 8.
Dealing with Culture Bias
1. Download the Cultural Diversity Questionnaire PDF.
2. Provide it as a download for your students.
3. Tell them NOT to put their names on the sheet, but to follow the directions and mark each item with a Y or an N.
4. Ask them to anonymously upload their completed questionnaires to a site or dropbox you specify. (Or they can be emailed as photo attachments.)
5. Email each student one of the completed questionnaires (not their own, if possible).
6. Schedule a synchronous online meeting or webinar with comments open. (This could also be done in a Google Form survey, but the sight of actual people answering is very powerful.)
7. Read each item aloud and ask all participants who are holding a questionnaire with a "Yes" in that item to raise a hand, say "Yes," mark a tally, or raise a hand in a webinar program. Anonymity is preserved, but all get an idea of the numbers.
Overcoming Negativity Bias
Jack Canfield (2017) is the bestselling author of The Success Principles, and one of America's top experts in the use of interactive exercises for personal growth and longterm success. Forward to 3:26 in this video if you want to get right to his suggested exercises for overcoming (what turns out to be a very common) negativity bias.
Recognizing Cognitive Bias: Group 8 Demonstration
Cognitive Bias takes many forms. On its simplest level, however, it happens when individuals -- being naturally more comfortable with what they already know -- filter the information they receive through that lens. Watch (from top to bottom) Michelle, Faustino, Susan, and Meredith struggle to look past what they KNOW (spelling) to report what they actually SEE (color).
Overcoming Disability Bias
This detailed resource from Bev Adcock and Michael Remus (2006) presents empathy-building exercises related to cognitive , intellectual, physical, and emotional disabilities.
To the left you can download your own copy (PDF).