In today’s mainstream culture, most people think of themselves as rational human beings.
Yet, against all scientific and empirical evidence, people who are perfectly aware of the health hazards still smoke; marketing drives our consumer behaviour; white supremacy and climate change denial are spreading. The list is endless….
The reasons behind this have been studied by social psychology as
“Cognitive Biases”
mechanisms that influence the ways our behaviours and attitudes go against rational logic.
Intrigued?
Come and explore with us some of the illogical ways in which our rationality is being distorted. We shall also look at the implications of these insights for our campaign approaches.
Caveat:
Most research on cognitive biases has been conducted within “WEIRD” contexts (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic) so should be treated with caution. In other contexts, the items highlighted here should be considered as food for thought and investigated locally.
OBJECTIVES:
- To understand the most common cognitive biases
- To get inspired at how to use them for your campaigns
- To be aware of the dangers and pitfalls of biases in your campaigns
This course was created with financial support from
