facinghistory.org

Getting Started: Note to Teachers This PowerPoint presentation accompanies Lesson 4: The Challenge of Confirmation Bias from the Standing Up for Democracy scheme of work. It is important to read the lesson plan in order to understand its rationale, procedure, key vocabulary terms, and to learn more about the optional assessment in the Notes to Teachers section. This presentation includes verbal instructions for the activities in the Notes beneath each slide. Accessing hyperlinks in PowerPoint involves extra steps: select View - Notes Page - right click on the hyperlink - and select Open Hyperlink. Alternatively, you can access the hyperlinks from Lesson 4: The Challenge of Confirmation Bias or by viewing the presentation in Google Slides. While you may need to modify this presentation to meet the needs of your students, please note that Facing History and Ourselves is not accountable for any changes that alter the presentation's content or original layout. Information about Standing Up for Democracy PowerPoint Slides Each PowerPoint accompanies a corresponding lesson plan that includes more detailed instructions about the activities and should be read in advance of teaching the lesson. Wherever possible, we have used images in lieu of writing to encourage the verbal delivery of instructions as a means of boosting focus and to promote active listening skills. The same image is used for each recurring teaching strategy throughout the scheme of work to facilitate recall and promote student independence.

The Challenge of Confirmation Bias

Guiding Questions How do we respond to information or evidence that contradicts our beliefs or assumptions? What is confirmation bias, and how does it make it difficult to overcome the "single stories" we believe about other people, and those others believe about us? The Challenge of Confirmation Bias: Learning Objective To define confirmation bias and examine why people sometimes maintain their beliefs in the face of information that contradicts or challenges their understanding or assumptions.

Can You Solve This? Can You Solve This? illustrates the Wason Rule Discovery Test as a way to introduce the idea of confirmation bias to your students. Start the class by playing the video Can You Solve This? (04:43), stopping the video at 01:10.

Can You Guess The Rule? Ask students to work with a partner to see if they can guess the rule. Then have each pair share their idea and record the possible rules on the board.

Why do people have trouble guessing the rule? What do you think prevents the people in the video from taking a different approach to the problem even after they know what they think is the rule must be incorrect? Play the video to the end (01:10-04:43) Then ask students to discuss questions 1–2 in pairs and then as a whole class.  

The tendency to hold a particular attitude or act in a particular way. Prejudice Bias Predisposition A negative opinion of a person or a thing that is not based on actual experience. Prejudice in favour of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. The tendency to hold a particular attitude or act in a particular way. Project the slide to reveal the three words: prejudice, bias, and predisposition. You might start by asking students to create and share their own working definitions to tap into their prior knowledge of the three terms before revealing the dictionary definitions and asking students to record them in their notes. Alternatively, you can reveal each definition, read it aloud with your students, and have them record the definitions in their notes.

As you listen, underline words and phrases that help you understand why it is so difficult for people to correct misinformation when they hear or read it. Write comments and questions in the Student Notes section of the handout. Pass out the handout Defining Confirmation Bias Video Transcript. Show the video Defining Confirmation Bias (02:34). (You will be prompted on the next slide to show it a second time.) Instruct students to underline words and phrases on the handout that help them understand why it is so difficult for people to correct misinformation. Pause after each speaker (as needed) to allow for note-taking and to pose comprehension questions to check for understanding.

One Surprising fact or idea One Interesting fact or idea One Troubling fact or idea Show the video a second time. Ask students to complete a S-I-T response on their handouts or in their journals. Have them share their responses with a partner or in a class discussion.

What is confirmation bias and how does it work? What strategies did you learn from the Can You Solve This? video and discussion that might help offset our tendencies toward confirmation bias? How can confirmation bias influence the way people select and respond to news and information? How does confirmation bias affect our ability to judge the accuracy of information, whether it be from a news story, something else that we see on the Internet, or something that we hear? In small groups or as a class, discuss questions 1–4 so that students can synthesise the two videos and make connections to their own experiences.

Expose an idea or belief as false. Bias Prejudice Debunk Tell students that confirmation bias is often deeply entrenched in our emotional response to ideas, issues, and beliefs, making it particularly challenging to counteract. Plenty of Internet and social media sources exploit our emotional response (so-called “click bait”). Unfortunately, as we will see in this activity, this kind of viral misinformation can be particularly difficult to correct. The National Public Radio (NPR) report Digital Culture Critic Abandons "Fake on the Internet" Column (link is external) (03:25) explores the decision by the Washington Post, a major United States newspaper, to discontinue a column dedicated to correcting viral misinformation online. Preview key vocabulary from the NPR report as needed: prejudice, bias, debunk, futile. Pass out the transcript of the report to students and then play the audio (twice if you have time). Both transcript and audio are available on NPR’s website. As students listen to the story, have them underline words, phrases, or ideas in the transcript that help to explain why it is so difficult to correct the misinformation that we hear and read. You can instruct them to write exclamation points in the margin where they are surprised and question marks where they feel confused. Prejudice in favour of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. A negative opinion of a person or a thing that is not based on actual experience. Expose an idea or belief as false. Futile Pointless

After students have listened to the report twice, divide them into small groups to discuss the questions on the next slide.

What places on the transcript did you underline and mark with an exclamation point and question mark? Why did those places in the report stand out to you? According to Caitlin Dewey, what are some of the reasons why people create and share what turns out to be rumour or misinformation? Why do you think that people are more likely to believe misinformation or a conspiracy theory when it has been debunked or proven to be incorrect or untrue? Ari Shapiro asks: If journalists like you just give up on trying to demonstrate that these stories are false, haven't we really lost something valuable as a society? What do you think society will lose if journalists give up trying to demonstrate that fake news stories are false? What responsibility do websites like Twitter and Facebook have to identify and block fake news stories? What challenge does confirmation bias present in our efforts to see past the stereotypes and “single stories” we believe about each other? Project and/or pass out the discussion questions for the NPR report that the students just listened to. Have students discuss questions 1–5 in small groups. Time allowing, discuss one or more of the questions as a class. The fifth question is important because it prompts students to synthesise information Lessons 2–4 of Standing Up for Democracy and make real-world connections to their lives.

What is one way that confirmation bias can make it difficult for you to overcome a "single story" that you have about another individual, group of people, or place? What one change could you make in your own life after learning about confirmation bias that might help you overcome this “single story”? Ask students to respond to the two questions on an exit card that they will submit at the end of the lesson. You can compile some ideas from the exit cards to share at the start of the next lesson. It is important that you keep the writers’ names anonymous if you share their ideas, unless you receive permission from the students in advance of the lesson.

@facinghistory | facinghistory.org