Teaching Students What They

Don’t Want to Learn

Richard L. Miller & William J. Wozniak

University of Nebraska at Kearney

STP Best Practices, 2013

What Don’t They Want to Learn?

Our Own Focus

Overcoming Students Cherished Beliefs in Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

Collaborators:

Marci Rust, Beverly Miller, Jennifer Slezak, Logan Stickney, Robert Bechtel, D.

Dymak, Ben Clancy, & Haley Milam

Extent of Paranormal Belief from Gallup Poll

Astrology, Crystal Balls & Tarot

Reincarnation

Subliminal Perception

Subliminal Persuasion

Subliminal Persuasion

Why we believe: Reducing Uncertainty

Why We Believe: Reducing Uncertainty - Terror Management

Belief Systems: Biblical Literalists Modernists Post-modernists New Agers

Changes in Traditional & Paranormal Beliefs as a function of Death Anxiety

Effects of Mortality Salience on Paranormal Beliefs

Why Some Individuals ResistScientific Explanations/Facts

Fear loss of something of value

don't understand science and its implications

don't think that scientific explanations make sense

find it difficult to cope with either the level or pace of the scientific discovery

Feel connected to other people who are identified with non-scientific explanations

Feel that scientific explanations threaten their view of themselves

Traditional Educational Approaches

Flooding applied to the Classroom

A Recommended Technique for Teaching Controversial Issues

Really Recommended Techniques to Teach Controversial Issues

Emphasize critical thinking and research methodology (Clarke, 2005)

Establish Rapport (Marshall et al., in press)

Mythbusting (Lilienfeld et al, in press)

Classroom Debates (Peden et al, 2009)

Just-in-Time Teaching (Apple et al, 2009)

Commercial media presentations (Daniels, 2009)

Games (Garczynski & Harvey, 2009)

Anonymous Questionnaire Analysis (Maurer, 2009)

Research Methods Class:Palm Reading

Discussion of Research Methods in PSY 270

Outed by a Student to the local palm reader

Study Design:Double-blind TechniquePreparation of Stimulus Materials Descriptions Provided by the Reader Finding Yourself

Response from data collection

Educational Interventions based on Cognitive Dissonance Theory

o Counter-attitudinal Advocacy

o Belief Perseverance

o Hypocrisy Induction

Counterattitudinal Advocacy I

Stimulus Materials

Reading, Writing and Control

Before and After

Miller, et al. Teaching of Psyhology, 1998

Figure 1. Agreement with Scientific Position

Figure 2. Agreement with Scientific Position

Counter-attitudinal Advocacy II

Effort vs. Self-generation of Arguments

Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions

Miller & Wozniak, Current Research in Social Psychology, 2001

Figure 1. Belief in Subliminal Perception

Table 1. Behavioral Intentions

Hypocrisy InductionStudies by Aronson and colleagues:

Water Conservation condom use in college students. generosity toward the homeless.

Study I using Hypocrisy Induction to address Belief in the Paranormal

Inverted UDescriptive NormsPsychological Reactance

Psychological Reactance

Festinger, L (1957). Huh?

Psychological Reactance:Psychological reactance occurs when behavioral

freedoms are reduced or threatened and the individual is motivated to regain them (Brehm, 1966).

Hong and Faedda (1996) created the Hong Psychological Reactance Scale.

Background

Does a person’s reactivity affect whether they are influenced by hypocrisy induction.

Hypothesis:People with high psychological reactance scores will

be less affected by the hypocrisy induction and, therefore, less likely to change their beliefs.

Hypocrisy Induction: Study 2

Clancy & Milam, 2010

Participants were asked to complete Reactance Scale and the Belief in the Paranormal Scale

To induce hypocrisy in paranormal beliefs, participants wrote a short response to the prompt:

“Why is it important to use logic and the scientific method in everyday life? Be sure to include examples of how scientific evidence is a necessity in becoming an intelligent, college-educated citizen.”

To measure belief change, participants later received a marketing survey disguised as though it was from the local book store

Measurements

Results

Tips for Teachers

Preserve freedom of choice in the assignment.

Individual responsibility for the assignment.

Require both effort and self-generation of arguments.

Don’t overuse the technique.

Use after grounding in scientific literature.