Supporting my preconceived notions
I’ll admit it. One of my favorite things to find is information that supports my biases. (Actually, I also enjoy articles that challenge my thinking, too. Really!) I encountered the former in the March 2007 issue of Seed magazine. In an article entitled The Truth Seekers, there is a discussion of the work of a researcher named Alan Sanfey. In brief, he studied why people who participate in a standard economics-based decision game called “Ultimatum” tend to make choices that don’t make sense.
The game works like this. There are two subjects, and one is given $10. He or she then has to share the money with the other subject, but can decide how much (or how little) to share. The other participant can choose to accept the offer or reject it, but if he or she rejects it, neither subject gets anything. According to standard economic theory, the second participant will accept the offer, no matter how unfair, because a little money is better than none.
It doesn’t work that way, however. If the offer is unfair, the second participant will usually reject it. The choice isn’t rational, it’s emotional. This experiment has been around for about 20 years, and what’s new is that Sanfey had participants play the game while having their brains scanned, so he could see what parts of the brain were active. When faced with an unfair offer, the part of the brain dealing with strong emotions is where the action happened. To quote the article, Contrary to the expectations of most economists, our anger almost always overruled our reason.
I’m throwing this into a blog on ed tech because I think this is true in many areas beyond economics. As I’ve written before, I’m fascinated with why some technologies are adopted and some aren’t. It’s clearly not an issue of rational decision-making sometimes, and sometimes when decisions are rational, they are completely unsatisfying. (Does anyone really love overhead projectors?) When we look at new technologies that may hold promise for the classroom, we need to look beyond whether it simply makes sense. Will it make students and teachers feel better about what they’re doing? New technologies are almost always a pain in the neck to implement. If I don’t feel like it’s making my life better, all the rational arguments in the world aren’t going to get me to use it.