Task 4 integrated speaking

 Task 4 integrated speaking

Confirmation bias When people are presented with a theory, arguments, or opinion that is in line with their own views, they are more likely to read or listen to it ,accept it as true, and remember it. Conversely, people typically ignore, reject, or forget theories, arguments, or opinions that they personally oppose. These tendencies, known as confirmation bias, can cause people to make poor decisions if they ignore, reject, or forget evidence that their opinion is not the best one.

I'll tell you a personal story that illustrates the idea of confirmation bias. Recently my wife and I were planning our vacation. She wanted to go to New York City, but I had this preconceived idea that New York was a bad place to go. I had been there once when I was a child and, well, I got lost in the airport for several hours, which was a very upsetting and emotional experience for me.  My wife showed me brochures about New York and shared other people’s recommendations with me, but although it looked and sounded really interesting, my reaction was negative. I rejected or ignored positive things about New York and instead focused on negative aspects like crime and high prices.  In the end I persuaded my wife we should go to MIami… which turned out to be a mistake. On the first day, the weather was so hot and humid that we stayed inside our hotel which had air conditioning. And then a major storm hit the city and we couldn't leave our hotel because the winds were so strong. So you can see that my negative opinion about New York made me reject evidence that it was the better place to go and resulted in a disappointing vacation.

Using points and examples from the lecture, explain how confirmation bias affects the decisions people make. 

The reading introduces the concept of confirmation bias. In summary, this is when people prefer information that matches their opinion, and make bad decisions because of this preference. The professor gives a personal example of this concept. First, he says that his wife wanted a vacation in New York, but he did not want to go there because of a negative experience in New York when he was a child. Next, he mentions that he rejected information about New York that did not match his negative opinion of that city. Finally, he states that he and his wife vacationed in Miami instead of New York, but this was a bad decision. This example shows how confirmation bias affected the professor’s decision. 

Structure

The reading introduces the concept of…

In summary, this is…

The professor gives persona examples o this concept

First, he says that

Next, he mentions that

Finally, he states that

This example shows how…

The NIMBY principle In principle, people tend to support development projects, such as the construction of a railway line, which they feel would benefit their community. However, if the development will affect them directly because it will occur close to where they live, they often oppose it. This is known as the Nimby principle, with nimby standing for not in my backyard. Construction projects likely to be opposed as a result of the nimby principle are factories or other industrial buildings, power stations, prisons, airports, and even projects that seem positive like schools or hospitals.

So, let's look at a couple of people’s negative reaction to development proposals. There's one I read about the other day which was very interesting. A California energy producer wanted to build a new environmentally friendly power plant that used sunlight to produce energy during the day and then burned trash to produce energy at night. In other words, this power plant was designed to produce environmentally clean energy 24 hours a day. Now in general, Californians ar well known for their support of environmental causes, but local residents apparently did ot support this plan because the power plan was to be built very close to their homes and so the energy firm had to find a different location to build it.  And, well, I'm not proud of this, but a similar situation happened just recently in the neighborhood where I live. There was a proposal to build a new shopping mall just a few minutes from my home. Now I go shopping as much as the next person, but although I liked the idea of more convenient shopping, I was worried that the mall was too close to my home.. I thought the mall would bring noise, pollution, and traffic problems, so like hundreds of my neighbors I opposed the plan and, to my relief, the plan was eventually canceled.

Social psychology Broadly speaking, the focus of social psychology is the study of how and under what conditions human thoughts, drives, beliefs, and behaviors are affected by other people. Social psychologists also focus on related ideas such as the ways in which human perception and interaction are influenced by other people and by society. Social psychology theories are based on empirical, experimental data and cover a broad range of topics including individual and group behavior, and both positive and negative aspects of social behavior including leadership, conformity, and prejudice.

Ok. I'd like to tell you about a famous social psychology experiment. Back in the 1950s, a psychologist called Solomo Asch conducted a series of experiments on conformity - under what conditions people choose to act in the same way as others. In the classic experiment, a group of eight participants were shown a card with a line on it and then another card with three lines labeled A,B, and C. One of the three lines was obviously the same length as the original line, and two of them were either much longer or much shorter. The participants had to say which line -A,B, or C - was the same length as the original line.  The trick was that only one of the eight participants was a real participant. The real participant did not know that the other seven people were actors who had been told ahead of the experiment whether to give the right answer or a wrong answer.  ASch wanted to see whether the real participant would agree with - that is, conform with - the opinion of the seven actors when they gave the wrong answer even when their answer was clearly wrong. And in fact, at least 75% of real participants did conform to the group and give an incorrect answer at least once. This experiment shows that the real participant was affected by the answers that the other participants gave.

Test challenge

Sunk cost Bias Oast investments of time or money that cannot be recovered are known as sunk costs. People tend to think about costs when making decisions, but this can lead to poor decisions because of so-called sunk cost bias. A person who has already invested time or money in a project, for example, may decide to continue investing so as not to waste the initial, non recoverable investment. This is fine when continued investment is likely to be beneficial, but in the cases where continued investment is a bad risk, the rational decision would be to stop investing.

We’ve all heard the aphorisms, don't throw good money after bad, but actually a number of companies are creating business models that encourage consumers to do precisely that. I was reading about a company that develops games for smartphones and tablets. Some of their games are not just wildly popular, but widely profitable, too. Here's how their business model works.  First, a consumer downloads the game for free and starts playing. At first the game is fun and easy, but soon it becomes very hard. At this point, the player has a choice. He or she can either stop playing, or spend a few dollars to make the game easier. Some consumers will think, well, I’ve already spent some time on their game and I don't want to waste the time, so I'll spend some money to make the game easier. Then the game becomes even more difficult and again the consumer has a choice - stop playing or spend more time and money on the game - and again some consumers will do the latter. They'll say to themselves, you know. I've invested time and money on this game, so it must be fun. I guess I'll spend a few more dollars. The catch is that for many people, the game is no longer fun at this point, but they keep spending time and money trying to beat the game because they don't want to feel that the time and money they've already spent is wasted.

Defense mechanisms Sigmund Freud, often known as the father of psychoanalysis, developed the theory of defense mechanisms. These are psychological strategies that allow people to function normally by projecting them from situations and events that could cause emotional distress and anxiety. Defense mechanisms may also protect people against inappropriate impulses. Typically, defensive strategies are unconscious - the brain adopts them automatically rather than as a result of conscious thought - but in some cases people will consciously choose to use one or more strategies.

You’ve all done the reading about defense mechanisms, I hope, so let's talk about a couple of different strategies that many people adopt when faced with difficult situations.  I'm sure you’ve all heard -and maybe even used- the expression. He's in denial about a person who doesn't seem to be facing up to a problem or situation. Well, this expression is common precisely because denial is actually a defense mechanism that people use. In simple terms, denial is when a person either refuses to admit, or doesn't even recognize, a negative situation. When I was a child, my pet dog died in an accident. It was such a painful situation for me that, according to my parents, for at least a week after the dog died, I refused to accept that she was dead. In short, I used denial as a strategy to reduce my emotional pain.  Rationalization is another defense mechanism that people sometimes use  when things are bad. It involves avoiding the real reasons for a negative situation by finding a logical, rational explanation as a way to make the situation seem better. For example, a study conducted a few years ago showed that some students who fail an exam are likely to blame the quality of teaching they receive. When the study habits of those same students were analyzed, however, it was clear that many of the students failed because they simply didn't do enough work. Their feelings that their teachers were not good enough was just a rationalization to protect themselves from the painful reality that they were lazy.

The halo effect If one characteristic of an individual, such as his physical appearance or behavior, is viewed positively, people are very likely to assume - without any evidence- that the same individual has other positive characteristics, such as kindness or intelligence. The reverse holds true as well: individuals with one less desirable trait are often seen as having other negative characteristics, again despite there being no evidence for that. This cognitive bias is called the halo effect, and it applies not just to individuals, but to organizations, countries, and products, too.

Marketers can use the halo effect to boost sales in a couple of ways. One method is to use celebrity endorsement. Celebrities, such as actors or athletes, are often physically attractive, successful individuals. The bias introduced by the halo effect means that we tend to assume they are also smart, funny, kind, and so on. When a marketer pays a famous actor to promote a brand of jeans, for example, out positive image of that person rubs off on the jeans, so if we think the actor is stylish and attractive, were likely to think the jeans are stylish and attractive as well.  Another way that the halo effect works in marketing is when people’s positive perception of one product sold by a company extends to that company’s other products. Automobile manufacturers, for example, may try to develop a so-called halo vehicle that is a high quality car which has a very positive image among consumers. The idea is that the positive perception of this high quality vehicle will extend to other, lower end, vehicles that the same company produces.