BUS 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Decision-Making, Confirmation Bias

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Business
• Course: BUS 221
• Professor: Chris Mac Donald

Document Summary

Good decision making has 2 components: making good decisions, convincing other people. Give reasons: provide arguments (with sufficient proof) ***hard decisions: possibly on final exam*** (look at powerpoint) 3 key elements: methods and tools, critical mindset, practice doing it. Critical thinking: ~ (cid:862) (cid:455)ste(cid:373)ati(cid:272) e(cid:448)aluatio(cid:374) or for(cid:373)ation of beliefs by rational standards (actual de(cid:272)isio(cid:374)s)(cid:863) Deter(cid:373)i(cid:374)i(cid:374)g (cid:449)hi(cid:272)h li(cid:374)e is longer visually, etc. (cid:449)ords (cid:271)a(cid:272)k(cid:449)ards thi(cid:374)gs thro(cid:449)i(cid:374)g (cid:455)ou off. Pro(cid:271)le(cid:373): (cid:455)ste(cid:373) (cid:1006) is too laz(cid:455), let"s #(cid:1005) take o(cid:448)er a(cid:374)d ha(cid:448)e too (cid:373)u(cid:272)h (cid:272)o(cid:374)trol. To reason effectively, learn to avoid sources of error: sources of error are so common they have names. Important type of source: cognitive bias: subconscious mental tendencies, rooted in intuition that lead to errors in judgement/decisions. Are ps(cid:455)(cid:272)hologi(cid:272)al, (cid:374)ot (cid:862)(cid:271)iases(cid:863) i(cid:374) ra(cid:272)ist errors: biases are powerful, pervasive and resist educational efforts, the framing effect, anchoring, conclusions are reached based on how situations are described or (cid:862)fra(cid:373)ed(cid:863).