Mitigating bias blind spot via a serious video game

We employed a serious video game to train participants on bias blind spot (BBS), capturing training effects on BBS mitigation and knowledge at three points in time. Experiment 1 (N = 703) compared the effects of hybrid training (a combination of implicit and explicit training) to implicit training; Experiment 2 (N = 620) tested the effects of just-in-time versus delayed feedback; and Experiment 3 (N = 626) examined the effects of singleplayer versus multiplayer learning environments. We also tested differences in game duration (30 vs. 60 minute play) and repetition (single vs. repeated play). Overall, the video game decreased BBS linearly over time and increased BBS knowledge at posttest, but knowledge decayed at 8-week posttest. These and other results are discussed, along with the implications, limitations, and future research directions

Unconventional Methods for a Traditional Setting: The Use of Virtual Reality to Reduce Implicit Racial Bias in the Courtroom

The presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial lie at the core of the United States justice system. While existing rules and practices serve to uphold these principles, the administration of justice is significantly compromised by a covert but influential factor: namely, implicit racial biases. These biases can lead to automatic associations between race and guilt, as well as impact the way in which judges and jurors interpret information throughout a trial. Despite the well-documented presence of implicit racial biases, few steps have been taken to ameliorate the problem in the courtroom setting. This Article discusses the potential of virtual reality to reduce these biases among judges and jurors. Through analyzing the various ethical and legal considerations, this Article contends that implementing virtual reality training with judges and jurors would be justifiable and advisable should effective means become available. Given that implicit racial biases can seriously undermine the fairness of the justice system, this Article ultimately asserts that unconventional de-biasing methods warrant legitimate attention and consideration

Training Anchoring and Representativeness Bias Mitigation Through a Digital Game

Objective. Humans systematically make poor decisions because of cognitive biases. Can digital games train people to avoid cognitive biases? The goal of this study is to investigate the affordance of different educational media in training people about cognitive biases and to mitigate cognitive biases within their decision-making processes. Method. A between-subject experiment was conducted to compare a digital game, a traditional slideshow, and a combined condition in mitigating two types of cognitive biases: anchoring bias and representativeness bias. We measured both immediate effects and delayed effects after four weeks. Results. The digital game and slideshow conditions were effective in mitigating cognitive biases immediately after the training, but the effects decayed after four weeks. By providing the basic knowledge through the slideshow, then allowing learners to practice bias-mitigation techniques in the digital game, the combined condition was most effective at mitigating the cognitive biases both immediately and after four weeks.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Biased against Debiasing: On the Role of (Institutionally Sponsored) Self-Transformation in the Struggle against Prejudice

Research suggests that interventions involving extensive training or counterconditioning can reduce implicit prejudice and stereotyping, and even susceptibility to stereotype threat. This research is widely cited as providing an “existence proof” that certain entrenched social attitudes are capable of change, but is summarily dismissed—by philosophers, psychologists, and activists alike—as lacking direct, practical import for the broader struggle against prejudice, discrimination, and inequality. Criticisms of these “debiasing” procedures fall into three categories: concerns about empirical efficacy, about practical feasibility, and about the failure to appreciate the underlying structural-institutional nature of discrimination. I reply to these criticisms of debiasing, and argue that a comprehensive strategy for combating prejudice and discrimination should include a central role for training our biases awa

Report to the New York City Housing Authority on Applying and Lifting Permanent Exclusions for Criminal Conduct

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is conducting an internal review of its policies related to permanent exclusions for criminal conduct on NYCHA property. Permanent exclusion (PE) occurs when a NYCHA tenant—rather than risk eviction—enters into a stipulation that those associated with the resident who have engaged in non-desirable behavior are barred from entering the apartment. It also occurs as a result of an administrative hearing where NYCHA seeks an eviction, but the hearing officer opts to preserve the tenancy and bars the offending person from the apartment.To inform this policy review, NYCHA partnered with the Vera Institute of Justice and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The review sought to understand how NYCHA could better balance its commitments to the safety of the community, the stability of its tenants' families, and the successful reentry of formerly incarcerated people. The following recommendations reflect an extensive review of existing policies and practices around PE, interviews with NYCHA staff, a meeting with NYCHA residents, and social science research on risk mitigation and future offending

Persuasive Gaming in Context

The rapid developments in new communication technologies have facilitated the popularization of digital games, which has translated into an exponential growth of the game industry in recent decades. The ubiquitous presence of digital games has resulted in an expansion of the applications of these games from mere entertainment purposes to a great variety of serious purposes. In this edited volume, we narrow the scope of attention by focusing on what game theorist Ian Bogost has called 'persuasive games', that is, gaming practices that combine the dissemination of information with attempts to engage players in particular attitudes and behaviors.This volume offers a multifaceted reflection on persuasive gaming, that is, on the process of these particular games being played by players. The purpose is to better understand when and how digital games can be used for persuasion by further exploring persuasive games and some other kinds of persuasive playful interaction as well. The book critically integrates what has been accomplished in separate research traditions to offer a multidisciplinary approach to understanding persuasive gaming that is closely linked to developments in the industry by including the exploration of relevant case studies

Cognitive Bias in Clinical Medicine

Cognitive bias is increasingly recognised as an important source of medical error, and is both ubiquitous across clinical practice yet incompletely understood. This increasing awareness of bias has resulted in a surge in clinical and psychological research in the area and development of various ‘debiasing strategies’. This paper describes the potential origins of bias based on ‘dual process thinking’, discusses and illustrates a number of the important biases that occur in clinical practice, and considers potential strategies that might be used to mitigate their effect

State of the Science: Implicit Bias Review 2017

The release of the 2017 State of the Science: Implicit Bias Review comes at a very important time. More than ever, Kirwan and our partners in equity work can see the importance of how we shape the narrative of race and equity in this country. For the last five years, the State of the Science has been one of the ways that we have been able to add depth to this often one-sided narrative, by pointing to the complex underpinnings of how peoples' conception of race influences our perceptions, thoughts, and relationships.This edition of the State of the Science: Implicit Bias Review was originally conceived as a way for Kirwan to get a better understanding on what was still an emerging topic. Five years ago, we could not have imagined how many of our partners would also be interested in this resource as a way to help broaden the national discussion on racial equity. Kirwan is delighted to be able to share this work with legal professionals, non-profit leaders, civil rights activists, doctors, teachers, and everyone in between.This release is a shining example of the tremendous effort and dedication of our Race and Cognition Program to living out Kirwan's mission. The positive acclaim for this publication and its impact on addressing real world inequities continues to make the Kirwan Institute proud. At such an important milestone, it is not only important to celebrate the impact of our work, but we must also look to the future to ensure that the implicit bias research will continue to help us all build a more equitable and inclusive world

Exploring Failure and Engagement in a Complex Digital Training Game: A Multi-method Examination

Digital games are ideal for training complex decision making skills because they allow players to experience decision making processes and consequences. However, training complex skills often results in failure, which may undermine learning engagement. Traditional training methods employing observational learning (e.g., training videos) do not cause learners to fail but forfeit experiential learning that makes training games so engaging. Our exploratory work addresses the trade-off between experiencing and observing failure and explores their effect on the level of training engagement. Building on past engagement research, we argue that learning engagement contains both cognitive and affective facets and that these facets may diverge, especially when individuals experience failure. To test these ideas, we conducted an experiment (N = 156) comparing engagement in game-based training, in which participants experienced failure, and video-based training, in which participants observed failure. We collected cognitive and affective indicators of engagement using physiological and self-report measures. We found game-based experiential learning increased such indicators of engagement as attention and temporal disassociation even though players widely failed to meet game objectives. Players also experienced elevated arousal and decreased positive affect. In addition, we compared physiological measures of engagement with self-reported measures and discuss their merits and limitations

Boost: Improving Mindfulness, Thinking, and Diversity

Many important decisions can be difficult; require focused, cognitive attention; produce delayed, noisy feedback; benefit from careful and clear thinking; and quite often trigger anxiety, stress, and other strong, negative emotions. Much empirical, experimental, and field research finds that we often make decisions leading to outcomes we judge as suboptimal. These studies have contributed to the popularity of the idea of nudging people to achieve better outcomes by changing how choices and information are framed and presented (also known as choice architecture and information architecture). Although choice architecture and information architecture can nudge people into better outcomes, choice architecture and information architecture also assume implicitly or explicitly that people’s decision-making competencies are immutable or too costly to improve and, therefore, choice architecture and information architecture fail to improve people’s decision-making competencies. This Article advocates boosts to improve mindfulness, thinking, and diversity. Boosts differ from nudges in that boosts aim to improve decision-making competencies, instead of just decisionmaking outcomes. Mindfulness involves paying attention to life in an intentional way as it unfolds moment to moment. Mindfulness improves decision-making through many pathways, including by reducing stress and negative emotions. Recent economic research demonstrates that many cognitive biases exemplify lack of mindfulness about particular aspects of life. Thinking boosts include thinking technologies and diversity. Thinking technologies involve computer or digital technologies to assist people in their thinking. Examples of novel, fun thinking technologies include a financial entertainment computer video game where a player is a vampire managing a blood bar and planning for retirement, and video adventure games designed to teach players to recognize and mitigate their cognitive biases. Diversity creates bonuses for organizations by improving decision-making, creativity, innovation, prediction, problem-solving, and productivity