Scholars Society: 'Don't Stop Believing'

PUBLISHED 03 March 2023

Headmaster, Mr Harrow, led this term's Scholars Society meeting entitled, 'Don't Stop Believing' on Thursday after school this week.

Mr Harrow made reference to the 1980s pop song by Journey to open a discussion about how we make decisions; our confidence in what we think we know and how we process information. He introduced students to the Dunning-Kruger Effect, whereby a lack of knowledge can lead to an over-estimation of one's competence. He also showed a video demonstration of the audio-visual illusion McGurk Effect to highlight how all humans are prone to certain predictable errors and how sometimes, even knowing about an illusion doesn't insulate us from its effects.

Students worked in groups to respond to a series of quizes, showing how information is presented can often bias our decision-making and influence our thinking.

This session provided students (and staff!) with plenty of food for thought: how we should be aware of potential biases, how we should keep an open mind and not be too accepting of what we think we know.

It is part of our Scholars Programme which can be viewed in full here.