About the Course

As this course is conducted from the social-psychology perspective, I will begin with a short summary of how people create meaning in social life. For this purpose, I will describe the classic idea of social representations. You are going to learn, for example, how shared social representations and group beliefs affect the way people discuss important issues and solve social problems. We will also cover the role of framing, which is how presenting information about a social issue in a specific context influences viewers' or listeners' perceptions and evaluations of the issue. People tend to evaluate objects by comparing them to easily available anchors, that is, to the context in which the object is presented. This context, or frame, could change the viewers' perception without altering the facts. This subject will lead us to talk more about the relationship between perception and evaluation of technologies and people's tendency to relay on cognitive shortcuts or heuristics.

I will also discuss the results of studies on motivated reasoning. They show that we, as a people, are very good at finding and concentrating on the information that supports our position and avoiding or downplaying information that opposes our preferences or beliefs. That is, we do not process information in an objective, cold, rational way. Quite the opposite—we all tend to adhere to biased information-processing, with the tendency to adjust facts to our needs.

These are examples of topics we will discuss. In the sections of the course, I will also provide presentations, papers, and other materials and resources for those participants who are interested in a more extensive exploration of the psychological mechanisms related to the understanding of public perception and evaluation of technologies.

Course Syllabus

• Week 1: Social representation and the role of shared group beliefs

• Week 2: Framing effect, values, and risk perception

• Week 3: The role of heuristics

• Week 4: Motivated reasoning

• Week 5: Deliberation techniques and community engagement

Recommended background

None. All participants are welcome.

Suggested readings

All suggested readings will be presented in the course materials. Some of them will be open-source materials that can be found on the web. Some suggestions will point to books or papers that are important for the subjects but are not in public domain. You do not need to purchase anything for this course, but if you would like to discover more extensive coverage of the presented subjects, I will propose some additional readings throughout the course.

Course format

This course has five segments. In each segment, I will present a short overview of the issue and add a short presentation, additional materials, and links to papers and books on the topic discussed. You should consider this course a very short introduction to the subject and a starting point for your own discovery of the psychological factors that shape people's perceptions of the social world. All materials will be available for the participants from the beginning of the course, so you can work at your own pace.

FAQ

Q: Does the University of Gdansk award credentials regarding my work in this course?

A: No certificates or other credentials will be awarded in connection with this course.