The Merchant of Bias Game
Trash your preconceptions
Biases are neither good nor bad. They are short-cuts we use every day to get on with life and work. We use them roughly 80% of the time with great success. What happens when our decisions don't work? What do we do then?
A game of wit and assumption… played in teams, a series of dilemmas are given over three rounds. You will create a solution to the problematic situations.
The Merchant of Bias is an experiential game, where you will laugh about your biases and understand how they influence your decisions.
Played in teams, you will be given a scenario and asked for a solution to the dilemma presented.
Share your solution with the group and win tokens for you team.
Learn about bias and create ingenious solutions in an interactive CPD learning opportunity.
The Game includes:
- Queen of Ceremonies, the indomitable Susanna Shelton, who will award (and deduct) tokens. QC's decision is final.
- A High Court Judge and Chief Questioner will provide advice about the solutions.
Just like in real life, expect the unexpected. Who knows what biases will be revealed in the teams' solutions?
With this experiential learning opportunity will help you understand you own decision making in practice.
How the Game is Played
This game is played over 2 hours. Small teams of practitioners work together to provide solutions to a series of scenarios.
The aim is to collect as many tokens as possible for your team and enjoy yourself. The QC will award tokens based on the ingenuity, creativity and thoughtfulness of the team answer. The Judge and Questioner offer insights to questionable explanations. Teams may also be awarded tokens for specific conundrums they identify as the game goes on, including lapse of impartiality by the Judge. Tokens may also be deducted by the QC.
The order of play is interactive and the QC’s decision on tokens is final.
Just like in life there is often a best practice solution with no absolutely correct solution.
Round 1 - Tight Pants
Each team works together to “solve” the first scenario, explaining the biases they used to get there. A good story could also be part of the teams answer. In this game there are no right or wrong answers to the scenarios.
Round 2 - Guilty as Charged
Tokens will be awarded to the teams who identify the number and nature of the biases used in their responses to the second scenario. Each team can grab more tokens by identifying other teams' biases.
Round 3 - The Hot Potato
In this final round a more complex scenario will the teams' focus. Can your team identify the biases in this hot topic?
When: Monday 21st March 2022
Time: 7 - 9pm AEDT (+11 hours GMT)
Duration: 2 hours of gameplay
Registration
Register individually and then discover your break-out room team-mates on the night.
Resources to play The Merchant of Bias Game
Blog to Read
Article to Read
Cards to Download
So you think your decision-making is unbiased?
We all have biases and we can’t live without them. These decision making techniques help us make many decisions. When we use this kind of shortcut, Daniel Kahneman calls it fast thinking. We live most of our life with fast thinking, and for the most part it works for us. We make pretty good decisions, and have fun. But there are times when we use fast thinking where we can become unstuck. This shortcut leads us down the wrong path in our decision making activities.
Common Sources of Bias
One of the main problems with decision making in life and in practice, or when conducting scientific studies is that bias (the conscious or unconscious influences) can make decisions and conclusions less dependable. Bias can occur in a number of different ways and it is important for people to be aware of these and find ways to minimise bias.
Bias Cards Download
Human capacity to perceive and process information is limited. If you think about how many thousands of stimuli we come into contact with each day, it's a wonder we can function at all!
To cope with this overload of information, we as humans have evolved a number of strategies to help us function within our busy world.
Sitback, have created a set of Bias Cards, summarising 25 common biases that researchers, designer and participants may hold unconsciously. Download a copy of Bias cards as a PDF.
Learning Outcomes from the Game
- Recognise personal and professional bias more easily
- Understand the importance of identifying bias in life and work
- Appreciate the impact of hidden bias in homeopathic treatment
- Learn interactively about your own biases and others, and see where they may be holding you back from better solutions with your patients
5 CPD Points: Instructions
- 2 hours prereading and study - and completion of a questionnaire
- 2 hours of gameplay including applying learnt knowledge as well as acquiring more knowledge through practice
- 1 hour completing a 500 word reflection – use the resources above to inform your reflection – summarise what you learned and its impact your life and practice.
When: Monday 21st March 2022
Time: 7 - 9pm AEDT (+11 hours GMT)
Duration: 2 hours of gameplay
Registration
Register individually and then discover your break-out room team-mates on the night.
The Merchant of Bias game is all about being human
