Discover your Blind Spot at Web Summit 2018 Research uncovers details about the relationships between decision-making and social cognition

London, UK - 5 October 2018: social cognition startup OPIÑON unveils insights into the science of decision-making and provides early beta access to Web Summit attendees.

From the second we wake up to the moment we fall asleep, we pretty much constantly make decisions. Regardless of whether these decisions are big or small, made as part of a team, or alone, they affect how we interact with the world around us and are prone to bias.

In fact, over 150 decision-making have been reported. These biases can have a catastrophic effect on how effective the decision-making process is. Overcoming biases falls under the field of neuroscience called Social Cognition that focuses on understanding how we perceive, interpret, and interact with others.

Research conducted with over 264 individuals uncovered that 87% of participants were subject to the Bias Blind Spot Effect - a natural tendency to either under or overestimate our own . This bias was found to relate to how people make decisions about the viewpoints of others. Participants answered questions about controversial topics anonymously and assessed alternate viewpoints on the topics in question.

“The research uncovered insights on the social science of decision making: the time spent walking a mile in someone else's shoes via exercises like "considering the opposite perspective” showed statistically significant relationships with empathy and decision-making biases of participants.” said Michael Banissy, Professor in Psychology at Goldsmiths ​ University of London and Chief Science Officer at OPIÑON.

These insights inspired OPIÑON: a blend of social cognition science and technology, where thought-provoking questions are used as daily hyper-fast cognitive workouts to foster critical thinking, emotional competence, curiosity flair, and improve collaborative decision making.

Marco Botticelli, Co-founder and CEO of OPIÑON commented: “The more controversial a ​ topic is, the more difficult it becomes to see all sides of the story. In these contexts, soft social skills are predictors of decision-making abilities, yet are reliant on our resilience when it comes to trying to understand the reasons behind a particular point of view and the meaning behind the language being used”.

Nowadays, gamification is used in many educational experiences and is key pillar of OPIÑON.

“Past research has shown that certain types of gaming-based training can increase motivation, reduce cognitive biases by up to 46%, and are up to 44% more effective than video-based learning experiences” according to Marco Botticelli. ​

OPIÑON is part of the Transformative Tech Academy 2018 Cohort - an accelerator born in Silicon Valley. It’s the first global program dedicated to technology startups that support mental health, emotional wellbeing, and human thriving.

Conference attendees at the Web Summit 2018 in Lisbon, November 5-8 can experience OPIÑON first-hand with a demo, asses their Bias Blind Spot Quotient, and gain early access to the beta for iOS devices. **ENDS**

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About OPIÑON: Founded by Marco Botticelli and Prof. Michael Banissy, OPIÑON is the cognitive training playground for controversial topics where curious minds can train soft skills and foster improved decision-making. Inspired by the Theory of Mind and research on the Collective Wisdom, the startup is based in London, UK and aims to address the problem of forming an opinion in contexts where cognitive biases often creep in. Combining an anonymous environment with gamification-style models, social neuroscience, and machine learning, OPIÑON rewards users for training Curiosity Flair, Emotional Competence, and Critical Thinking. OPIÑON is available in early beta for iOS devices by invitation.

Website: getopinon.com ​ For press enquiries and images: [email protected] ​