Deck 10: Addressing Negativity

Question 1

Thomas Curwen of the Los Angeles Times spent three years reporting and writing about a woman with:

A) a chronically bad driving record
B) ten adopted children
C) a facial disfigurement
D) a surprising career path
E) none of the above

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What is the term used to describe techniques to reduce or eliminate distortions or errors in thinking and judgment?

A) decategorization
B) unerroring
C) certainty orientation
D) debiasing
E) all of the above

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Research indicates that automatic (as in instant and unintentional) stereotypes and prejudice are controllable.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Which of the following factors may encourage journalists' unbiased thought and behavior?

A) social norms, such as a newsroom culture
B) a critical or vocal source
C) social context, such as reputation
D) personal motivation
E) all of the above

Question 5

Countering or correcting biases about others is fairly simple and low-effort and works every time, once you know the right tools to use.

Question 6

What is crowdsourcing in a journalistic context?

A) the collaborative information-gathering efforts of citizens
B) asking many people in a crowd for their opinions
C) news stories that include more than three sources
D) sourcing based on multiple opinions
E) none of the above

Question 7

An example of a cognitive debiasing strategy is:

A) consider the opposite
B) consider any alternative
C) training
D) perspective taking
E) all of the above

Question 8

Which of the items below is an example of motivational debiasing?

A) knowing that as a journalist, you don't have to explain your decisions to anyone by yourself, you go with your own instincts
B) being motivated to make the best decision you can at the time
C) if a journalist has received complaints about stereotyping in her work, she may rely on more individualized information in future stories to avoid the same mistake
D) if a journalist has received complaints about stereotyping in her work, she may focus on stories that avoid her prejudices so they won't seem so obvious
E) none of the above

Question 9

One motivational debiasing strategy is to avoid information that might bias judgment. Some scholars call this:

A) exposure control
B) mind control
C) source avoidance
D) information avoidance
E) all of the above

Question 10

To consider the opposite and to consider any alternative to a story hypothesis are effective because these techniques:

A) redirect the mind to superficial information
B) open the mind to new information
C) force reevaluation of useless details
D) are another form of exposure control
E) none of the above