How do our cognitive biases affect our counselling?
We like to think of ourselves as rational beings, but we approach life – and the university-application process – burdened with cognitive biases
Yein Oh
We like to think of ourselves as rational beings (a vestige of the Enlightenment era) – but we simply are not. A quick survey into the literature of cognitive psychology and behavioural economics will summon up a host of cognitive biases we are beset with as human beings.
And in the university application process, which naturally involves myriad cognitive processes, these biases can be found in droves.
Awareness of how these biases manifest in the way our students, their parents and we as counsellors think will help us to provide more effective college counselling advice.
Here are brief definitions of 10 salient cognitive biases, followed by the ways in which they affect a particular aspect of the university-application process, and a subsequent suggestion of how to combat this in our practice.
It’s likely that all of us are already engaged in the delineated suggestions. If so, knowing what cognitive bias we are combating might help us find other creative ways to overcome them.
1. Availability heuristic or attentional bias
Definition: Noticing things already primed in memory or repeated often, and failing to consider alternative possibilities when occupied with an existing train of thought.
How it affects university applications: This is why already selective universities that are easily recalled (such as Ivy League or Russell Group institutions) will continue to gain traction and popularity.
How to combat it: Just because a university is readily available in our memory does not mean that it is a better school. Remind your students and parents of that important fact and consistently bring up other universities off their radar to make those readily available in their memory, too.
2. Confirmation bias or Semmelweis reflex
Definition: Being drawn to details that confirm our own existing beliefs.
How it affects university applications: The existing narratives in one’s community about university and subject destination (“So-and-so went to this university and studied this and became rich/successful/happy”) can be too easily reinforced as the narrow and only path to success.
How to combat it: Present alternative paths and narratives. This way, we reconfigure the information available so that new beliefs are processed and information perceived in a novel way.
3. Insensitivity to sample size or neglect of probability
Definition: Tending to find stories and patterns even when looking at sparse data.
How it affects university applications: The number of students who get into very selective universities is really small but touted often.
How to combat this: Present hard data and numbers to students and parents to manage expectations.
4. Bandwagon effect
Definition: Doing things because others are doing them already.
How it affects university applications: Students apply to the same universities as their friends, family and significant others.
How to combat this: Remind them that they are different people from their peers and reflect on whether this university is truly a good fit for them as individuals.
5. Sunk-cost fallacy or escalation of commitment
Definition: Doing something because you have already invested resources into it, even though there are increasingly negative outcomes.
How it affects university applications: Students might continue with an application just because it has taken a lot of their time already (for example, US applications to selective universities).
How to combat this: Ensure that students have back-up plans and use their existing application preparation for other applications with possibly later deadlines.
6. Source confusion or misattribution of memory
Definition: Not remembering where certain memories come from.
How it affects university applications: Students sometimes know “facts” about universities but forget where they came from.
How to combat this: Point out that the “facts” they bring forth should be cross-checked and verified by an official source (such as the university website or an admissions officer).
7. Implicit stereotype
Definition: Attributing particular qualities to a member of an outgroup.
How it affects university applications: Students and parents might implicitly (or explicitly) believe that people who went to universities XYZ are more intelligent/more successful/more happy than others.
How to combat this: Point out the fallacy of this assumption by referring to past alumni, people in the community and famous people who are clearly intelligent, successful and happy but did not attend universities XYZ. Bringing up cases where individuals attended universities XYZ but were not happy and successful can also be helpful.
8. Modality effect or levels of processing or Google effect
Definition: Learner performance depends on presentation mode and the levels of processing of studied items. Google effect is the tendency to forget information that can be found readily online using internet search engines.
How it affects university applications: Certain information will not be ingrained in one’s memory if it is looked over in a cursory manner or only on the internet.
How to combat this: Vary the modalities of learning about a university – for example, researching the university on the internet, hearing information from a university representative and actually visiting the campus. Ensure that the levels of processing run deep by giving clear prompts for conducting online research – for example, looking for a specific entry requirement, deadlines and curriculum structure – and then following it up.
9. Bizarreness effect or humour effect or picture superiority effect
Definition: Bizarre, funny, visually striking things will stick out more than non-bizarre or unfunny things.
How it affects university applications: Marketing strategies rely on this, and universities are no exception.
How to combat this: The initially striking details about a university are perfectly legitimate reasons for a student to start researching a university, but should not be the end reason a student chooses to apply to a university.
10. Illusion of transparency
Definition: People overestimate the degree to which their personal mental state is known by others, and also overestimate how well they know the other person’s mental state.
How it affects university applications: This can impede conversations when students expect us to know them and we expect to know students. (Throw parents in the equation as well, and it becomes even more complicated.) Then there are undiscovered territories that haven’t been made explicit yet, but should be, such as finances, preferences and motivations.
How to combat this: Have structured conversations where a list of necessary topics are covered. Also, have informal conversations often, as these are where important details inevitably spill.