MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'biases'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:25:02 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862629&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F05%2F25%2Fthe-critical-thinker-academy-2-interview-with-kevin-delaplante%2F This is part two of a two-part interview of Kevin deLaplante, a professor of philosophy and founder of The Critical Thinker Academy. Check out part one here. What is your favorite book on critical thinking? I often get requests for book recommendations. It’s hard because critical thinking requires so many different kinds of skill development, and no single book is going to cover everything. Also, people are usually interested in specific issues or topics, and once I know what those are it’s easier to recommend sources. My “starter kit” recommendation is to pick a good introductory book on basic argumentation and fallacies written from a logic/philosophy perspective, plus a good introductory book on the psychology of reasoning and decision making (something in the “biases ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862629 Wed, 25 May 2011 13:58:39 +0100 4862629 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4498292&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F02%2F19%2Fthink-like-a-skeptic%2F In 2009, I was a presenter at the JP Fitness Summit in Kansas City. The summit featured some of the top names in the fitness industry. Topics included any and everything fitness and nutrition related. My presentation addressed a topic that was foreign to many in attendance, “Thinking Skeptically: How to apply skepticism to the fitness industry?” Some of the participants seemed to have a hard time with this line of thought. Skepticism is rarely if ever mentioned in the popular fitness literature. The basic premise is this: learning to question and look for evidence could save fitness enthusiasts a great deal of time, money, and embarrassment. Key points from the lecture The fitness skeptic (“skeptic” is derived from the Greek skeptikos, which means “inquiring&#... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4498292 Sat, 19 Feb 2011 17:49:44 +0100 4498292 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4338023&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F01%2F12%2Fcritical-thinking-what-is-true-and-what-to-do%2F Many researchers suggest that a key characteristic of critical thinking is the ability to recognize one’s own fallibility when evaluating and generating evidence — recognizing the danger of weighing evidence according to one’s own beliefs.  The expanding literature on informal reasoning emphasizes the importance of detaching one’s own beliefs from the process of argument evaluation (Kuhn, 2007; Stanovich & Stanovich, 2010). The emphasis placed on unbiased reasoning processes has led researchers to highlight the importance of decontextualized reasoning.  For example (Stanovich & Stanovich, 2010, p. 196): Kelley (1990) argues that “the ability to step back from our train of thought . . . . is a virtue because it is the only way to check the results of our thinking... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4338023 Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:24:20 +0100 4338023 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4190566&cid=t_202460_180_f&fid=38619&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FALifeCoachsBlog%2F%7E3%2FBb2saIvert0%2F Moving on from the last post of Why You Make Poor Decisions I thought I’d conclude things by offering you a quick run through of some of the more common cognitive biases that you will probably be subjected to from time to time. Today we are going to follow a mythical woman called Helena as she goes to the Mall and see how easy it is for her to make mistakes if she is completely unaware of her cognitive biases. For the record, Helena is in no way connected to my wife, Helen. It is purely coincidental that their names are so similar. On arriving at the Mall, Helena (not Helen you understand) decides to grab a coffee. Whilst standing in line somebody comments on how nice her hair looks. Immediately somebody next to her concurs and before you know it there are half a dozen people nodding the... Life Coach Blog: The Discomfort Zone : blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4190566 Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:36:34 +0100 4190566 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3899461&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F08%2F25%2Flaurie-santos-on-the-evolutionary-situation-of-cognitive-biases%2F From BigThink: Dr. Laurie Santos is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Yale University. Her research provides an interface between evolutionary biology, developmental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, exploring the evolutionary origins of the human mind by comparing the cognitive abilities of human and non-human primates. Her experiments focus on non-human primates (in captivity and in the field), incorporating methodologies from cognitive development, animal learning psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. * * * * * * From TedTalks: Laurie Santos looks for the roots of human irrationality by watching the way our primate relatives make decisions. A clever series of experiments in “monkeynomics” shows that some of the silly choices we make, monkeys make too. * * * ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3899461 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:01:03 +0100 3899461 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3542678&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F05%2F07%2Fmind-over-money-nova-pbs-video%2F Below the jump you can watch an outstanding and fascinating  video episode, “Mind over Money,” by PBS’s NOVA, that asks the question “Can markets be rational when humans aren’t?” and that includes significant segments describing some of the work by Situationist friend Jennifer Lerner. (We’ve placed the (52 minute) video after the jump because it plays automatically.) * * * * * * For more detailed information relevant to the episode, you can click on the following links. The Disposition Effect Trust your gut when trading stocks? Do no such thing, argues David Adler, producer of “Mind Over Money.” The Deciding Factor A new study at Harvard is exploring how emotions affect our decisions, whether we like it or not. TV Program Descrip... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3542678 Fri, 07 May 2010 04:01:42 +0100 3542678 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2927363&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2F26%2Fwhy-sleeping-on-it-helps%2F We’re often told, “You should sleep on it” before you make an important decision. Why is that? How does “sleeping on it” help your decision-making process? Conventional wisdom suggests that by “sleeping on it,” we clear our minds and relieve ourselves of the immediacy (and accompanying stress) of making a decision. Sleep also helps organize our memories, process the information of the day, and solve problems. Such wisdom also suggests that conscious deliberation helps decision making in general. But new research (Dijksterhuis et al., 2009) suggests something else might also be at work — our unconscious. Previous research suggests that sometimes the more consciously we think about a decision, the worse the decision made. Sometimes what’s... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2927363 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:35:15 +0100 2927363 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2712156&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F08%2F19%2Fthe-situation-of-parochialism-abstract%2F Jonathan Baron recently posted his interesting paper, titled “Parochialism as a Result of Cognitive Biases” on SSRN.  Here’s the abstract. * * * I discuss several forms of bias, or fallacious thinking, that lead to parochialism, that is, a willingness to sacrifice self-interest for in-group members while neglecting or underweighing negative effects on outsiders, so that an out-group could lose more than the in-group gains from the sacrifice. In the self-interest illusion, people fallaciously think that their contribution to their group comes back to benefit them and make their sacrifice worthwhile. This illusion is larger when an outgroup is affected, and it is specific to group benefits; it is unrelated to the desire to hurt another group out of sheer competition. A se... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2712156 Wed, 19 Aug 2009 04:01:56 +0100 2712156 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2081386&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F01%2F06%2Ftaking-behavioralism-seriously-part-i-abstract-and-top-ten-list%2F This article highlights some of those implications and makes several predictions that are tested in other work. * * * SSRN has just announced its Journal of Behavioral & Experimental Economics and Journal of Behavioral Economics Top Ten lists for papers posted in the last 60 days.  Taking Behavioralism Seriously made both lists. To download the paper for free click here.  That link will direct you to the abstract and various download options.  To download the companion article, Taking Behavioralism Seriously: Som Evidence of Market Manipulation (112 Harvard L. Rev. 1420) click here. For a sample of related Situationist posts, see “Promoting Smoking through Situation” and “The Situation of Subprime Mortgage Contracts - Abstract.”     &nb... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2081386 Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:08:59 +0100 2081386 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2011078&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2008%2F12%2F04%2Fdr-fred-goodwin-update%2F I have little to add, but wanted to provide a roundup of updates about Dr. Fred Goodwin, the one-time director of the National Institute for Mental Health, a well-respected bipolar researcher, and host of a public radio program called The Infinite Mind. The Infinite Mind was called on the carpet earlier this year for what was largely a biased program emphasizing that there was little evidence linking suicidality to antidepressants (contrary to what the actual research shows). Undisclosed to listeners of the March 2008 broadcast (Prozac Nation: Revisited) was that all four of the commentators — including Dr. Goodwin himself — received funding from the very same pharmaceutical companies whose products they were defending. You can read a very interesting point-by-point analysis of... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2011078 Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:43:28 +0100 2011078 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1940958&cid=t_202460_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F11%2F07%2Fdecision-making-and-cognitive-psychology-iii%2F OK, I said yesterday that I’d discuss debiasing, and I didn’t - so I will today! Firstly, researchers have identified that ‘experts’ are typically over confident about their decisions. (Henrion & Fischhoff, 1986) One solution has been to ‘motivate’ clinicians to be accountable for their decisions, for example, by providing them with a total capped budget for treating all the patients in their area. The reasoning is that poor decisions will be less likely to be made if an error costs. Schwab finds three problems arising from this argument - 1. Methods that increase cognitive effort are useful only when the original decisions were made in a superficial way. 2. Accountability can actually exacerbate biases when judgments are based on the wrong informat... HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1940958 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:29:29 +0100 1940958 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1886444&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F10%2F17%2Fyes-they-really-are-irrational%2F Or at least, more so. If you have ever sat on the sidelines thinking to yourself that the humans don’t make sense (to the point that others compared you to the character Spock from Star Trek), there is some research evidence vindicating that perspective. Professor Ray Dolan’s research group at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1886444 Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:54:00 +0100 1886444 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1794379&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2008%2F09%2F16%2Fare-our-racial-biases-following-us%2F An interesting study published last week looked at whether the virtual worlds we create online are just going to reflect all of the typical biases and ways we discriminate in the real world. This is an interesting experiment because many proponents of virtual worlds suggest that such worlds are largely free from such cultural bias and discrimination. In one of the most striking findings, the effect of the DITF technique was significantly reduced when the requesting avatar was dark-toned. The white avatars in the DITF experiment received about a 20 percent increase in compliance with the moderate request; the increase for the dark-toned avatars was 8 percent. “For decades, research has shown that the outcome of that reciprocity-inducing technique is affected by how the requester is per... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1794379 Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:10:22 +0100 1794379 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1582170&cid=t_202460_85_f&fid=36195&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealth.tesstermulo.com%2F%3Fp%3D464 In as much as technology seems to be progressing faster nowadays, it doesn’t necessarily mean that our cultural perceptions do too.  And in a society that is deemed relatively conservative, often what’s modern can come into clash with what’s accepted as the societal norm.  The world of medicine, I believe, is not immune to this.  As in any world where people are the primary movers, then culture and societal values pervades. Take for example a simple history-taking.  In my observations at work, it would be rather difficult to elicit an honest disclosure from a teenage girl regarding sexual history if you’re a male doctor, even if the parents are not present.  It has happened not a few times that a male colleague would fail to elicit a sexual history from a young... Prudence, M.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1582170 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:38:03 +0100 1582170 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1451873&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2F18%2Fhate-speech-not-just-for-strangers-any-more%2F (Apologies for unsettling anyone’s recent meal.) My news aggregator came up with this doozy of a quote the other day. It was an editorial reply to an article about Kathleen Seidel, and I’m not going to quote the entire letter. (Follow the link to read it yourself — if you want to reply to the [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1451873 Mon, 19 May 2008 03:36:41 +0100 1451873 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1386867&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F04%2F21%2Fnew-season-eternal-science-illiteracy%2F Well, it’s spring for sure because the frogs and toads have been singing, the daffodils and dandelions and forsythia are blooming, and it’s impossible to keep my nails clean. Earlier today I was able to get this shot of the chief noisemaker from the backyard pondette; it’s the American Toad (cleverly named Bufo americanus, which [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1386867 Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:27:39 +0100 1386867 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1269618&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F03%2F01%2Fso-not-helpful-fixers-and-their-malcommendations%2F Bless them, there are a lot of people out there who want to help. Or rather, there are a lot of people out there who are helpful, and some who want to Give Help. The latter sort want to give “those people” or “the ones with your kind of special needs” the benefit of their [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1269618 Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:47:34 +0100 1269618 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1250214&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F02%2F22%2Fnot-so-lucky%2F The other day at the college I was waiting for an elevator (lift). It’s rather slow, but a sleet storm was heading in and I was especially achy. Just a few feet away was a bulletin board for a program the college runs, including a series of non-credit weekend classes for people [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1250214 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:31:10 +0100 1250214 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1179246&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F01%2F26%2Fthe-3-pound-exemption-disembodied-woo%2F You gotta feel sorry for Topeka, Kansas. The state’s capital city is not only home to the infamous Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church, and has recently been the battleground for Intelligent Design vs Evolution counter-counter-legislation by the school board (currently with the majority ruling pro-science), but now the capitol is host [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1179246 Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:39:12 +0100 1179246 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1049910&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F11%2F26%2Fliberation-by-disability-the-paradox-of-competency-and-inclusion%2F “Because there is no way for good people to admit just how bloody uncomfortable they are with us, they distance themselves from their fears by devising new ways to erase us from the human landscape, all the while deluding themselves that it is for our benefit.” ~Cheryl Marie Wade Disability is usually defined by what a person [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1049910 Mon, 26 Nov 2007 04:11:04 +0100 1049910 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1022230&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F11%2F13%2Finnumerancy-taxes%2F I once saw a bumper sticker that claimed lotteries were “a tax on the innumerate”, meaning that most of the people who gamble on such do so because they don’t really understand the mathematics of basic probability (chance). It does seem to be alarmingly true that a great number of people don’t have a [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1022230 Tue, 13 Nov 2007 02:51:31 +0100 1022230 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=983933&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F10%2F28%2Fskepticism-about-cynics%2F When commenting on a previous post of mine, andreashettle asked, I’m curious: how DO you help students understand the difference between blanket cynicism and healthy, balanced, thoughtful, analytical skepticism? I don’t ordinarily teach. I’m in a different field. But I’ve done a little tutoring and teaching in the past. And sometimes I run into a student (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=983933 Sun, 28 Oct 2007 01:14:05 +0100 983933 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=676172&cid=t_202460_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F06%2F13%2Frainbow-cracking%2F The other week after my blogging about dyspraxia and such, hubby found an article in wired blogs (“Hacking My Child’s Brain”) and a recent article in the New York Times, “The Disorder Is Sensory; the Diagnosis, Elusive”. Although sensory integration remains a vaguely-defined albeit real disorder, treatments are highly varied and disputed. Some [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=676172 Wed, 13 Jun 2007 03:22:05 +0100 676172