@misc{10481/94344,
year = {2024},
month = {8},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/94344},
abstract = {Causal illusions consist of believing that there is a causal
relationship between events that are actually unrelated. This
bias is associated with pseudoscience, stereotypes and other
unjustified beliefs. Thus, it seems important to develop
educational interventions to reduce them. To our knowledge,
the only debiasing intervention designed to be used at
schools was developed by Barberia et al. (Barberia et al.
2013 PLoS One 8, e71303 (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071303)),
focusing on base rates, control conditions and confounding
variables. Their assessment used an active causal illusion task
where participants could manipulate the candidate cause.
The intervention reduced causal illusions in adolescents but
was only tested in a small experimental project. The present
research evaluated it in a large-scale project through a
collaboration with the Spanish Foundation for Science and
Technology (FECYT), and was conducted in schools to make
it ecologically valid. It included a pilot study (n = 287),
a large-scale implementation (n = 1668; 40 schools) and a
six-month follow-up (n = 353). Results showed medium-tolarge
and long-lasting effects on the reduction of causal
illusions. To our knowledge, this is the first research showing
the efficacy and long-term effects of a debiasing intervention
against causal illusions that can be used on a large scale
through the educational system.},
publisher = {The Royal Society},
keywords = {Cognitive bias},
keywords = {Science education},
keywords = {Large-scale study},
title = {A large-scale study and six-month follow-up of an intervention to reduce causal illusions in high school students},
doi = {10.1098/rsos.240846},
author = {Martínez, Naroa and Matute, Helena and Blanco Bregón, Fernando and Barberia, Itxaso},
}