Lesson Plan

Biases and Pitfalls in Decision-Making

Grade Level: 6-12

Length: 60+ minutes

DE Domain: CB

  • Students will learn to identify common decision-making biases and pitfalls.

This lesson introduces high school students to cognitive biases through engaging hands-on activities and group discussion. Students learn to identify their own biases, understand how these mental shortcuts affect decision-making, and practice recognizing biases in real-world scenarios through role-play. By making the concept personally relevant and interactive, the lesson helps students develop critical self-awareness and better decision-making skills that they can apply across academic, personal, and future professional contexts.

CB.1- Identify cognitive biases and heuristics and the role they play in our decision-making and our views of the world.

CB.2- Recognize and actively resist overconfidence bias and bias blind spot.

CB.3- Recognize and actively resist hindsight bias.

CB.4- Recognize and actively resist present bias.

CB.5- Recognize and actively resist the framing effect.

CB.6- Recognize and actively resist the availability heuristic.

CB.7- Recognize and actively resist the anchoring effect.

CB.9- Recognize and actively resist confirmation bias.

CB.11- Recognize and actively resist polarized thinking and in-group bias.

Lesson:

Engage:

Setting the Stage (5 minutes)

  • Start by explaining that cognitive biases are common shortcuts our brains use to process information quickly, but they can sometimes lead to errors in judgment.
  • Give a brief example of a cognitive bias, such as the confirmation bias (tendency to seek out information that confirms our existing beliefs).

Biased or Not? (10 minutes)

  • Distribute index cards or pieces of paper to each student.
  • Ask students to write down a statement or belief they strongly agree with on one side of the card. For example: “Chocolate is the best dessert.”
  • Collect the cards and shuffle them.

Sharing the Biases (5 minutes)

  • Read out the statements one by one, without revealing the authors.
  • After each statement, ask the class to guess whether it represents the person’s true belief or if they might be biased in their opinion.

Apply:

Direct Instruction (20 Minutes)

Journal Entry

  • What biases do you identify or recognize within yourself?

Discussion

  • Open a discussion by asking students to share the biases they identified and why they find them relatable.
  • Facilitate a conversation about the potential consequences of these biases on decision-making and understanding of the world.

Role Play Activity (15 Minutes)

  • Divide students into small groups.
  • Assign each group a cognitive bias from the lesson.
  • Instruct groups to create a short skit or role-play illustrating how the bias can affect decision-making.
  • Each group presents their skit to the class.

Reflect:

Have students create a journal entry in which they think of a recent decision they made. Ask them to consider whether any cognitive biases might have influenced their choices.

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