IgorRižnar
UniversityofPrimorska,
FacultyofManagement
igor.riznar@fm-kp.si
StudentsBeware!
Thetextisaboutcognitive biasesthat teachers,studentsandpolicyma-
kers should be aware of when making important decisions about tea-
ching,learningandtheeducationsystemingeneral.Wealltendtocreate
our own reality, form opinions that are not exclusively based on facts,
judge situations and other people inaccurately and make illogical deci-
sions. The text is primarily based on Daniel Kahneman’s bookThinking,
FastandSlow(2011),abookthatdescribestheworkingsofthemindasan
interaction between two systems: the automatic and very fast System 1
andtheeffortfulbutslowSystem2.Inthefinalsectionofthearticle,the
importanceofdevelopingthinkinganddecision-makingskillsinbothte-
achers andstudentsisemphasized.
Ključnebesede: cognitive biases,teaching, learning
Študentipozor!
Besediloobravnavanekaterekognitivnepristranskosti,kisebijihmorali
zavedati učitelji, študenti in oblikovalci izobraževalne politike pri spre-
jemanju pomembnih odločitev o učenju, poučevanju in izobraževalnem
sistemu na splošno. Vsi smo nagnjeni k ustvarjanju lastne resničnosti,
oblikovanju mnenj, ki ne temeljijo izključno na dejstvih, netočnemu
presojanju situacij in drugih ljudi ter sprejemanju nelogičnih odločitev.
Besedilo temelji predvsem na knjigi Daniela Kahnemana z naslovom
Thinking,FastandSlow(2011), ki opisuje delovanje naših možganov kot
interakcijomeddvemasistemoma:samodejniminzelohitrimsistemom
1terpočasnimsistemom2,kizahtevavelikoosebneganapora.Vzadnjem
delu članka je poudarek na pomenu razvijanja sposobnosti razmišljanja
inodločanjatako priučiteljihkotpriučencih.
Keywords:kognitivne pristranskosti, poučevanje,učenje
https://doi.org/10.26493/1854-4231.17.17-20
Introduction
The title is used in the sense of Caveat emptor,
whichmeansbuyerbeware,theprinciplethatthe
customer is responsible for checking the qual-
ity of goods before buying them. In our case, we
are responsible for taking informed decisions by
investigating thoroughly the situation, thinking
about viable alternatives, exploring our options,
selecting best solutions, constantly evaluating
our plans and, finally, rethinking facts and valu-
able pieces of information available to us. This,
of course, holds true for personal decision mak-
ing, business decision making and consumer de-
cision making, and, as you might have guessed,
forteachers andstudents.
The inspiration for the text has come mainly
from Daniel Kahneman’s bookThinking,Fastand
Slow (2011). To some extent, mind and brain re-
searchisalsoanimportantsource–iftimeallows,
havealookatLearningwithBraininMind,aFlip-
boardmagazine onTwitter, foran introduction.
Purpose
Th i st e xti sa bo u ts e v e r a lc og n i t i v e biases and
faultyheuristics–theshortcutsandrulesofthumb
by which we make judgments and predictions
– which were discussed in the 1970s by Amos
Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. Tversky died in
1996. Kahneman later won the 2002 Nobel Prize
in Economics for the work the two men did to-
gether, which he summarized in his 2011 best
seller, Thinking, Fast and Slow. Another impor-
tantfigureinthefieldistherenownedeconomist
RichardThaler.Oneofthebiaseshe’smostlinked
with is the endowment effect, which forces us to
place an irrationally high value on our posses-
sions. Thaler won the Nobel Prize in Economics
in2017.
management17(2022)številka1 17

IgorRižnar|StudentsBeware!
With200entries,thelistofcognitivebiasesis
ratherlong,butIwillfocusonthosethatIbelieve
are the most harmful in the context of learning
andteaching:
•
Optimism bias makes us consistently un-
dervalue the costs and the duration of al-
most everything we do. Teachers are often
overoptimistic about the role of technology
inteaching,orwemayoccasionallyseeacer-
tain teaching methodology as the best – if
notonly–possible(say,project-basedlearn-
ing). Availability bias–isabouteaseofre-
call and more exposure to certain events or
knowledge.Inotherwords,webaseourdeci-
sionsuponeasilyavailablerecentknowledge
•
Bandwagoneffectmakesusbelievethingsbe-
causemanypeoplebelievethesame:ifmany
teachers believe that learning styles really
exist, the idea remains alive years after it
hasbeendebunked.H ere,aselsewhere,a
healthy doseofscepticism may help.
•
Confirmationbias – the propensity to search
for,interpret,focuson,andrememberinfor-
mation in a way that confirms our precon-
ceptions. This seems to be the most damag-
ing bias, as it leads us to look for evidence
confirming what we already know or think,
byignoringanypieceofevidencethatseems
to support alternate views. Testing is good
for students, said a teacher, now they are
workinghardtofindsupportiveinformation
only.
•
Stereotyping–expectingamemberofagroup
to have certain characteristics without ac-
tual information about that individual. Yes,
of course,boysarebetteratmath.
•
False consensus effect–weoverestimatethe
degree to which others agree with them.
Thinkaboutmeetingsandyouwillfindmyr-
iad situations when participants reach false
conclusions.
Both students and teachers are prone to sev-
eral biases, as a general ‘law of least effort’ ap-
plies to teachers as much as to other human be-
ings.Weoftenallowourselvestobeguidedbyim-
pressions and feelings and have high confidence
in ourintuitive beliefs.Evenwhenwe are wrong,
weareconfidentthatweareright.Bothteachers
andeducationpolicymakersarepronetoemploy-
ing System 1 (which is fast, automatic, frequent,
emotional, stereotypic and subconscious) when
System2(whichisslow,effortful,infrequent,cal-
culating and conscious) should be employed. Ac-
cordingtoKahneman,ourmindsdonotnaturally
rely on logical, rational and critical thinking pro-
cesses.
Among the biases found in teachers and stu-
dents,confirmationbiasisfoundeverywhere.Af-
ter years of practice, it is not particularly diffi-
cult to believethat what we haves always doneis
the right way of doing it. An example of confir-
mation bias, combined with the status quo bias
(the tendency to like things to stay the same
way) is the damaging fine-tuning of Business
English courses at Slovenian business and eco-
nomics higher education institutions. It is so
strong a bias that nothing has changed since the
late 1990s in all higher education institutions in
Slovenia,except,maybe,one:TheFacultyofMan-
agementof theUniversityofPrimorska.
T eachers,too,lovetoberight,sowemake
sense of the world by seeking patterns they are
familiar with. This may explain why so many
teachers are keenly interested in one, and one
only,methodofteaching,say,projectwork.While
project work can certainly help students learn
certain things more effectively, it cannot be con-
sidered the only method for teaching all subject
matter forallcoursestaughtat afaculty.
Maybe some teachers (and considerably more
educationpolicymakers)arevictimstoDunning-
Kruger Effect, according to which the less one
knows, the more likely one is to perceive one-
self as an expert. Many students at all levels of
education are familiar with the illusory superi-
ority of some of their teachers and vice versa,
who are unable to recognize their own lack of
skills/knowledge/understanding necessary for
effective teaching/learning.
Thetendencytobeoveroptimisticandtoover-
estimate favourable and pleasing outcomes is
called optimism bias. Unrealistic optimism of
unexperienced teachers has been a topic of sev-
eral studies (Weinstein 1980; Kulik and Mahler
1987;Weinstein1988;Kearns1995).Ontheother
hand,highperformanceexpectationsamonglow
scoring students have also been discussed by re-
searchers (Richman 2010), but it seems that too
little has been written about the overoptimistic
bias of education policy makers and seasoned
teachers.
Framing bias (using a too narrow approach to
solvingasituationorissue)andsubstitutionbias
(being prone to substituting a difficult question
withasimpleone)canalsobefoundineducators
and education policy makers. The question How
could we improve higher education? Is answered
18 management17(2022)številka1

IgorRižnar|StudentsBeware!
by ‘We should introduce iPads or computers’ or
‘We should make smaller classes and things will
improveconsiderably.’
SomeOtherImportantErrorsofThinking
inEducation
•
Fundamental attribution error. When teach-
ers observe another teacher’s class they
clearly seethe things the otherteacher does
wrong.Butwhenweteach,weonlynotice
the things students might do wrong. This is
fundamental attribution error. Fundamen-
tal attribution error stops us from learn-
ing by condemning our problems on the ex-
ternal circumstances (students, technology,
not enough time, etc.) rather than with our
own limitations.
•
Planning fallacy. Have you ever kept post-
poning planning your classes until the last
day? Or, in the case of students: have you
everpostponedstartingtostudyforanexam
until it was almost too late? The planning
fallacy makes us underestimate how much
time we need to complete the task before
the deadline.
•
Overconfidencebias.Overconfidencebiasma-
kes us misjudge how much control we have
and makes it impossible for us to predict
problems. Student progression may be mis-
judged,theirfailuretopasstheexammaybe
misinterpreted,ourownabilitiesasteachers
may beplainwrong.
•
Outcomebias.Theoutcomebiastellsteachers
that because something worked well in one
class, may also work splendidly in all other
classes.Whenwedonotfocusontheprocess
but prefer to focus on the result, things are
likelytogowrongwithoutusknowingit.
•
Cognitive dissonance. If you have been read-
ing this carefully and think that none of
this applies to you, cognitive dissonance is
the term you should pay some attention to.
Even though people tell you that you are
wrong,youkeepbelievinghowrightyouare.
If someone observes your lesson and gives
you feedback, you refuse to change your
opinion because you are sure the observer
is wrong. You might never learn anything if
you constantly think you are right.
•
Groupthink. A perfect example for group-
thinkbiasistheOfficeforStandardsinEd-
ucation’s keen desire to continue grading
schools. Ofsted officials do not see alterna-
tiveviewpoints,constantlysupressopposite
views.
•
Status Quo Bias. Maybe both teachers and
students are afraid of change. The result of
status quo bias is the feeling some of them
have:thatnothingchangedtobetterinedu-
cation foraverylongtime.
Conclusion
Ourbrainsplaytricksonus.IwishIwereahand-
some, young and confident writer, because then,
thereaderwouldjudgemycommentsmorefavou-
rablythanImightdeserve.Speakingaboutthink-
ingerrorsofpeopleisadifficultjob.Fears,af-
fection, and hatred explain many occasions on
which people depart from rationality. On the
other hand, luck plays a large role in every suc-
cessstory.
Kahneman’s book describes the workings of
the mind as an interaction between two systems
ortwocharacters:theautomaticSystem1andthe
effortfulSystem2.
So,letmeaskthefinalquestion:Whatcanwe
dotobecomelessbiased?Oneansweristhatlittle
canbedonewithoutaconsiderableinvestmentof
effort.BeingawarethatIamaspronetoovercon-
fidence, extreme predictions, and the planning
fallacy as my 40-year younger students is some-
thing. I am maybe a bit better at recognizing the
signs of a cognitive minefield, and so I can slow
down deliberately and ask for help from System
2. But this sensible procedure is, in my case, too,
lesslikelytobeappliedwhenneeded.
Whatcanteachersdo?Weshould,perhaps,fo-
cus moreon developingstudent’sthinking skills,
decision-making skills, principles of probability,
choice theory and statistics and teach our stu-
dents how to approach problems methodically
andavoidjumpingtoconclusions–inotherwords,
teach them to understand and not only to gain
new knowledge, to understandby not blindlyac-
cepting what they hear or read. They should be
constantly asking questions, do their own think-
ing andbe critical by challengingthe well-known
andexploringtheunknown.
Appendix
Kahneman’slistofbiasesisunexhaustive,andhis
remarks are precious food for thought. Here are
someforyoutodiscusswithyourpeersandthink
over.
1. ‘A reliable way to make people believe in
falsehoods is frequent repetition, because
management17(2022)številka1 19

IgorRižnar|StudentsBeware!
familiarity is not easily distinguished from
truth.’ Authoritarian institutions as well as
someuniversitiesknowthis fact.
2. ‘If you care about being thought credible
andintelligent,donotusecomplexlanguage
wheresimplerlanguagewilldo.’
3. ‘Odd as it may seem, I am my remembering
self,and theexperiencingself,whodoesmy
living,islikeastrangertome.’
4. ‘Theconfidencethatindividualshaveintheir
beliefsdependsmostlyonthe quality of the
storytheycantellaboutwhattheysee,even
ifthey see little.’
5. ‘We are proneto overestimate how muchwe
understandabouttheworldandtounderes-
timate the roleofchancein events.’
6. ‘We can be blind to the obvious, and we are
alsoblindtoourblindness.’
7. ‘The illusion that we understand the past
fosters overconfidence in our ability to pre-
dictthe future.’
8. ‘Acquisition of skills requires a regular envi-
ronment, an adequate opportunity to prac-
tice, and rapid and unequivocal feedback
about the correctness of thoughts and ac-
tions.’
9. ‘Declarations of high confidence mainly tell
you that an individual has constructed a co-
herent story in his mind, not necessarily
that the storyis true.’
10. ‘Before an issue is discussed, all members
of the committee should be asked to write
a very brief summary of their position. This
proceduremakesgooduseofthevalueofthe
diversity of knowledge and opinion in the
group.Thestandardpracticeofopendiscus-
sion gives too much weight to the opinions
of those who speak early and assertively,
causingothersto lineupbehindthem.’
11. ‘The easiest way to increase happiness is to
control your use of time. Can you find more
time to dothe things youenjoydoing?’
12. ‘Expertswho acknowledgethe fullextentof
theirignorancemayexpecttobereplacedby
more confident competitors, who are better
abletogainthetrustofclients.Anunbiased
appreciation of uncertaintyis a cornerstone
ofrationality–butitisnotwhatpeopleand
organizations want.’
13. ‘The idea of mental energy is more than a
mere metaphor. The nervous system con-
sumes more glucose than most other parts
ofthebody,andeffortfulmentalactivityap-
pears to be especially expensive in the cur-
rency of glucose.’
References
Kahneman, D. (2011).Thinking, Fast and Slow. New
York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Kearns, S.,and G. Morgan. 1995. ‘The Relationship be-
tween Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs, Sense of Effi-
cacy and Optimism Bias.’ Paper presented at the
Australian Association for Research in Education
Conference,Hobart, 26–30November.
Kulik, J. A., and H. I. M. Mahler. 1987. ‘Health Sta-
tus,PerceptionsofRiskandPreventionInterestfor
HealthandNonhealthProblems.’HealthPsychology
6:15–27.
Richman, H. 2010. ’Optimistic Bias in the University
Classroom.’PerspectivesinLearning 11(1):17–22.
Weinstein, C. S. 1988. ’Preservice Teachers’ Expecta-
tionsabouttheFirstYearofTeaching.’Teachingand
Teacher Education 4(1):31–40.
Weinstein,N.D.1980.‘UnrealisticOptimismaboutFu-
ture Life Events.’ Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology39:806–20.
20 management17(2022)številka1