SOC200H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Cognitive Bias
Document Summary
Coming up with an answer to just about any question is easy. Determining if your answer is true required evidence. Evidence is the reasons for which we believe something to be. Halo effect: a cognitive bias that causes prestige or status in one area to create a positive evaluation in another area. Saves time and allows us to benefit from the time invested by others in learning things. Even sincere and well-meaning experts can be wrong. Allows us to learn from the experience of others. Can be contradictory - no means of adjudicating. Does not require relying on info from others. Natural and social scientists use specialized techniques to collect and analyze data and use their analyses to support or reject theories. Data: empirical evidence or info gathered carefully according to specific rules or procedures. gathered is just another way of saying observed with the senses. Analyses: specialized procedures for drawing logical conclusions from data.
