Reference no: EM134014864

Question: Respond to Brian while being respectful of and sensitive to their viewpoints. Consider advancing the discussion in the following ways:

Post an article, video, or additional research to reinforce a peer's idea or challenge them to see their point from a different perspective.
Consider asking a content-relevant question or discussing your own personal experience with biases or heuristics such as those discussed in your textbook or the video.

Brian post

An interesting bias discussed in the TED talk is the tendency to overgeneralize based on limited or old, outdated information. During the ted talk, Hans discussed how many people still consider developing countries to be in extreme poverty, despite the current global data showing major improvements across the globe in things like health and education.

A bias like this, or other types like negativity bias, will invariably lead to inaccurate decision making. Relying on an assumption instead of facts creates far more challenges, despite perhaps being a quicker option than looking into a topic. Utilizing current, available data and scientific reasoning helps in reducing cognitive biases because they can encourage people to seek objectivity instead of their subjective experiences. Statistics and peer reviewed research make it much easier and more reliably make effective decisions.

Having a fact-based worldview, as promoted in the TED talk, is important in social justice. There is a lot of misinformation being peddled by policy makers regarding marginalized groups, such as transsexual people. By utilizing data, one can discern what is true and counter a lot of the misinformation. In doing so, one is much less likely to fall victim to the attempted fear mongering and culture war stirring.