Study on Increasing Bias Resistance

[Bryan Hill]

Seems promising.

https://www.clsbe.lisboa.ucp.pt/system/files/assets/files/2016-paper-carey-morewedge.pdf

[Joel Lehman]

Just got around to reading this paper. Seems promising, and a little bit inspirational, in terms of the possibility of making video games that aid rational thought. 

There were two classes of interventions the researchers found to be effective at reducing specific cognitive biases (one experiment looked at Bias Blind Spot, Confirmation Bias, and Fundamental

Attribution Error, while the other looked at Anchoring, Projection Bias, and Representativeness). The interventions were videos (the one from the first experiment is available freely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNWmnZJnNnE, however the second one seems not to be avaiable); and video games (unreleased, unfortunately, although a trailer is available here: https://vimeo.com/135530016, and apparently it might be available for licensing: http://cretecinc.com/portfolio/intelligence-advanced-research-projects-activity-iarpa-sirius-program/).

I sent an email hoping to get licensing details for the game (I want to play it), but am not hugely optimistic. It seems like the company intended these interventions for the military (maybe also for corporate America?), and not for broad public consumption. And the research serves the company's agenda, and some of the researchers are involved in companies associated with the game, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. But, the data was independently analyzed by another group and I believe  the experiment was pre-registered.

Computer games seem like a powerful medium to evoke psychological reflection and learning, although I guess the trick is how to make something hugely compelling to play but also effective as a learning tool. Anyone aware of computer games that made them more rational as a result of playing them?

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[Bryan Hill]

The Ace Attorney series is about being a defense attorney taking murder trials, and you always find out the real killer by the end. You have to present in-game evidence at the right times. While it's good at getting players to engage in critical thinking, I'm not sure that it targets any specific biases. The first game is free on iOS.

Her Story might be another good one, though I haven't played it. It's about reviewing a suspect's testimony and figuring out if she committed murder.

The Witcher series offers several moral choices in each game that reward System 2 thinking over System 1. But oh, the temptation for System 1 is so strong...The second game is especially good about it. Each game is 40+ hours long though.

Bryan Hill
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UT Austin Information Security Office
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