Running Head: META BIAS IN EDUCATION Meta‐bias: A practical theory of motivated thinking for educators Hunter Gehlbach
[email protected] Christine Calderon Vriesema
[email protected] Gevirtz Graduate School of Education #3113, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA 93106-9490 Keywords: bias, motivated cognition, person perception, self, social perspective taking Acknowledgements This research was made possible in part by generous funding from the Robertson Foundation. Abstract As global challenges increasingly require cross‐cultural solutions, the need to train the current generation of students to more accurately discern the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of others escalates in importance. One approach to improving social perspective taking entails teaching students when and how bias impedes their efforts to “read” others. To facilitate this educational goal, we propose a theory of meta‐biases that unifies and distills the biases that frequently derail perspective taking attempts. Specifically, we argue that people primarily strive to be accurate in their attempts to read others. However, two competing motives often derail this core goal: a desire for cognitive efficiency and a need to protect and/or promote one’s sense of self. We organize a sample of person‐perception biases into these two “meta‐biases” for illustrative purposes. We hope the proposed theory helps educators more easily redress faulty attributions and seize teachable moments with their students. 1 Running Head: META BIAS IN EDUCATION Meta‐bias: A practical theory of motivated thinking for educators As the world becomes more global, people’s need to accurately read each other’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations increases in urgency.