Morendil comments on Open Thread, October 16-31, 2012 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: OpenThreadGuy 16 October 2012 10:43PM

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Comment author: Lightwave 17 October 2012 12:51:37PM *  1 point [-]

I'm planning on doing a presentation on cognitive biases and/or behavioral economics (Kahneman et al) in front of a group of university students (20-30 people). I want to start with a short experiment / demonstration (or two) that will demonstrate to the students that they are, in fact, subject to some bias or failure in decision making. I'm looking for suggestion on what experiment I can perform within 30 minutes (can be longer if it's an interesting and engaging task, e.g. a game), the important thing is that the thing being demonstrated has to be relevant to most people's everyday lives. Any ideas?

I also want to mention that I can get assistants for the experiment if needed.

Edit: Has anyone at CFAR or at rationality minicamps done something similar? Who can I contact to inquire about this?

Comment author: Morendil 18 October 2012 06:24:02AM *  3 points [-]

I've done this in a few small groups, using:

  • the "this is an attention test" video (aka "how many passes does the team in white make") - always a hit
  • a calibration exercise just as Larks suggests below, which works pretty well
  • the Wason card task - some people find it unconvincing "because it's logic" (!)
  • a "learned helplessness" experiment using impossible anagrams - works so-so
  • a "priming" experiment where two groups have a phrase-building task with different priming words - my version of that sucks, need to rework it
  • I also show the Spinning Dancer often
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