Master Cognitive Biases and Improve Your Critical Thinking
What you'll learn
- Understand what cognitive biases are and why they're so important for critical thinking.
- Understand the concept of "mindware" as a component of improving critical thinking and reasoning.
- Understand how ignoring cognitive biases can open the door to disastrous decisions, reduced performance and social injustice.
- Understand why many businesses and industries are offering cognitive bias training to their managers and employees.
- Be able to describe several important cognitive biases -- such as confirmation bias, pattern-seeking, anchoring, and hindsight bias -- and give examples that illustrate how they operate.
- Understand what "debiasing" is, and be able to describe several effective strategies for reducing the harmful effects of cognitive biases.
- Explain why many businesses and organizations resist implementing debiasing strategies.
Requirements
- Students do not need any special background to benefit from this course. Just a willingness to think, learn and discuss!
Description
Critical thinking is one of the most important skills anyone can learn. Let philosopher Kevin deLaplante introduce you to the cutting edge of critical thinking education, with this entertaining and enlightening introduction to cognitive biases and their importance for critical thinking.
Interest in Cognitive Bias Training Has Exploded
Books and articles on the impact of cognitive biases in business, finance, management, teaching, science, politics, and many other fields, have exploded in popularity in recent years. Many industries have started offering cognitive bias training to management and workers, and the trend is growing.
Benefits of Understanding and Mastering Cognitive Biases
Cognitive biases undermine critical thinking by making us vulnerable to faulty beliefs and bad decisions. Cognitive bias training is motivated by a desire to avoid disasters, improve performance, and promote social justice.
The good news is that there are proven strategies for neutralizing or minimizing the negative effects of cognitive biases. These "debiasing" techniques can be surprisingly simple and effective.
What You Will Learn in This Course
This course will get you up to speed on what cognitive biases are, why they're important for critical thinking, why cognitive bias training has become popular, and what sorts of "debiasing" techniques have been shown to be effective in improving the quality of thinking and decision-making.
Check out the free preview videos in the "Getting Started" section for a full breakdown of the topics covered in the course, and how the course is organized!
Who this course is for:
- Anyone who is interested in improving their critical thinking skills.
- Anyone who wants to learn about what psychology has taught us about human judgment and decision-making over the past forty years.
- Anyone working in business or other organizations who wants to improve the quality of thinking and decision-making in their organization.
Instructor
- 4.6 Instructor Rating
- 40,068 Reviews
- 160,067 Students
- 4 Courses
I'm a philosopher of science by training, and I've taught philosophy and critical thinking at the university level for twenty years.
From 2009-2013 I was Chair of the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies at Iowa State University.
In 2015 I left my tenured academic job to pursue a career as an independent online educator. I produce video tutorial courses on topics in science, philosophy, critical thinking and communication skills.
I also do consulting and coaching, and run a membership community dedicated to improving our "Argument Ninja" skills!