Week 6 Day 3 — Confirmation Bias, Framing & Decision-Making

1 · Retrieval Warm-Up

Retrieval Warm-Up

Without notes, write one idea you already know that might connect to Confirmation Bias, Framing & Decision-Making. Then write one question the lesson should help you answer.

2 · Essential Question

Essential Question

How can beliefs and presentation influence what evidence people notice and which choices they make?

3 · Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

Define confirmation bias as a tendency affecting search, attention, interpretation, or memory.
Explain belief perseverance without treating every stable belief as irrational.
Distinguish gain and loss frames.
Explain how choice architecture can influence behavior.
Practice seeking disconfirming evidence before reaching a conclusion.

4 · Psychology Word of the Day

confirmation bias

Use it in context: Explain how confirmation bias connects to today’s evidence, measure, or explanation. Do not treat knowing the word as the same thing as understanding the construct.

5 · Vocabulary in Context

Vocabulary in Context

confirmation bias · belief perseverance · disconfirming evidence · framing · gain frame · loss frame · risk · choice architecture · decision-making

6 · Core Reading

Substantial Core Reading

Good reasoning does not require having no prior beliefs. It requires making room for evidence that could challenge them. Framing can change which consequences become psychologically salient even when the underlying numerical information is equivalent.

7 · Worked Example

Worked Example / Synthesis

“90% survival” and “10% mortality” communicate equivalent numerical outcomes but emphasize different aspects of the same result. A good decision-maker translates between frames before judging.

8 · Scientist's Desk

Psychological Scientist's Desk

Evaluate: “Facts speak for themselves.”

Facts are not arbitrary, but evidence must still be measured, selected, represented, communicated, and interpreted. Scientific procedures help prevent a preferred explanation from controlling every stage.

9 · Data Lens

Data Lens

Compare fictional choice percentages in survival-frame and mortality-frame conditions. Identify the independent variable, dependent variable, difference between conditions, and the strongest justified conclusion.

10 · Claims Laboratory

Claims Laboratory

Calibrate this claim: “One observation about Confirmation Bias, Framing & Decision-Making tells us everything important about a person.”

11 · Guided Investigation

Guided Investigation

Frame Flip Lab: rewrite five claims in equivalent gain and loss frames, then identify what changed psychologically and what remained mathematically constant.

11A · Extended Inquiry

Extended Inquiry from the Locked Plan

Critical Thinking Tool

For four claims write:

supporting evidence,
disconfirming evidence,
an alternative explanation,
what evidence would change your mind.

Ethics Lens

Choice architecture can be used to simplify beneficial decisions, but hidden manipulation, coercion, unfair defaults, and reduced autonomy require ethical scrutiny.

12 · Independent Assignment

Independent Assignment

Write a 250–400 word evidence-based analysis applying Confirmation Bias, Framing & Decision-Making to a fictional, public, or non-sensitive example.

13 · Research Notebook

Research Notebook Checkpoint

Audit the wording of the semester research question and any proposed survey items. Could phrasing steer respondents toward a particular answer? Revise where needed.

14 · Academic Journal

Academic Journal Reflection

What would it look like to test one of your own ideas rather than merely defend it?

Privacy boundary: The journal is academic, not therapeutic. Fictional, public, non-sensitive, or course-supplied examples are always acceptable.

15 · Daily Review

5-question formative check

1. Which statement best captures today's central idea about Confirmation Bias, Framing & Decision-Making? A single observation proves a fixed trait in every person. A psychological label explains behavior without measurement. Good reasoning does not require having no prior beliefs. Alternative explanations can be ignored once a claim sounds plausible.

2. Which task best matches today's Data Lens for Confirmation Bias, Framing & Decision-Making? Choose the most dramatic anecdote and treat it as a population estimate. Remove units and labels so the graph is easier to read. Use one participant to diagnose an entire group. Compare fictional choice percentages in survival-frame and mortality-frame conditions.

3. Which response best applies Confirmation Bias, Framing & Decision-Making to today's independent task while staying within the evidence? Apply Confirmation Bias, Framing & Decision-Making to a bounded evidence-based scenario. Replace the assignment with an unsupported personal diagnosis. State a conclusion before identifying evidence. Treat correlation as automatic proof of causation.

4. How should the Psychological Scientist's Desk handle a strong claim about Confirmation Bias, Framing & Decision-Making? Accept it if it sounds intuitive. Define what the claim predicts, identify a measure, compare evidence, consider alternatives, and calibrate the conclusion. Reject every claim that has any limitation. Use confidence as a substitute for evidence.

5. Which conclusion is most scientifically responsible after today's work on Confirmation Bias, Framing & Decision-Making? Generalize a group average to every individual. Treat a measure as identical to the construct itself. State only what the evidence supports and name an important limitation or uncertainty. Assume one plausible explanation must be the only explanation.

80% meets today’s completion threshold; weekly mastery comes only from the Week 6 assessment.

16 · Local Completion Record

Review status

Not yet marked reviewed

17 · Optional Completion Challenge

Challenge unlocked

This optional local activity is separate from mastery and is never used to profile ability, personality, motivation, or mental health.

Open Challenge