Examinando por Autor "Yarritu Corrales, Ion"

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    The dark side of cognitive illusions: when an illusory belief interferes with the acquisition of evidence-based knowledge
    (John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2015-10-10) Yarritu Corrales, Ion; Matute, Helena; Luque Ruiz, David
    Cognitive illusions are often associated with mental health and well-being. However, they are not without risk. This research shows they can interfere with the acquisition of evidence-based knowledge. During the first phase of the experiment, one group of participants was induced to develop a strong illusion that a placebo medicine was effective to treat a fictitious disease, whereas another group was induced to develop a weak illusion. Then, in Phase 2, both groups observed fictitious patients who always took the bogus treatment simultaneously with a second treatment which was effective. Our results showed that the group who developed the strong illusion about the effectiveness of the bogus treatment during Phase 1 had more difficulties in learning during Phase 2 that the added treatment was effective.
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    Illusions of causality: how they bias our everyday thinking and how they could be reduced
    (Frontiers Media S.A., 2015-07-02) Matute, Helena; Blanco Bregón, Fernando; Yarritu Corrales, Ion; Díaz Lago, Marcos; Vadillo, Miguel A.; Barberia Fernández, Itxaso
    Illusions of causality occur when people develop the belief that there is a causal connection between two events that are actually unrelated. Such illusions have been proposed to underlie pseudoscience and superstitious thinking, sometimes leading to disastrous consequences in relation to critical life areas, such as health, finances, and wellbeing. Like optical illusions, they can occur for anyone under well-known conditions. Scientific thinking is the best possible safeguard against them, but it does not come intuitively and needs to be taught. Teaching how to think scientifically should benefit from better understanding of the illusion of causality. In this article, we review experiments that our group has conducted on the illusion of causality during the last 20 years. We discuss how research on the illusion of causality can contribute to the teaching of scientific thinking and how scientific thinking can reduce illusion.
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    La ilusión causal: una mirada al origen de la creencia supersticiosa
    (Universidad de Deusto, 2013-03-19) Yarritu Corrales, Ion; Matute, Helena; Facultad de Psicología y Educación; Psicología experimental
    A menudo la superstición implica la creencia en una relación causal inexistente. Así, podemos creer que cierto amuleto tiene la capacidad de hacernos aprobar un examen, que el número 13 provoca mala suerte o que el ritual adecuado conseguirá que esa persona se enamore de nosotros. La relación real entre todas estas causas y sus supuestos efectos es nula. Sin embargo, con cierta frecuencia las personas creemos en relaciones causales que no se ajustan a la evidencia. Cuando las personas desarrollamos la creencia de que dos eventos independientes se relacionan causalmente llamamos a esta creencia ilusión causal. Estas ilusiones causales se producen sistemáticamente bajo ciertas circunstancias relacionadas con el modo en el que interpretamos la evidencia disponible acerca de los emparejamientos entre una causa potencial y un efecto. En este trabajo propondremos que estas ilusiones causales son el origen de muchas de las creencias supersticiosas que aún hoy perduran en el conocimiento colectivo. A lo largo del mismo profundizaremos en las circunstancias que llevan al surgimiento de las ilusiones causales y pondremos a prueba experimentalmente algunos de los factores más relevantes en su desarrollo. Los resultados de estos experimentos ayudarán a comprender mejor por qué y cómo se originan y se mantienen las creencias supersticiosas y nos brindarán estrategias para evitar incurrir en las mismas.
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    Previous knowledge can induce an illusion of causality through actively biasing behavior
    (Frontiers Research Foundation, 2015-04-08) Yarritu Corrales, Ion; Matute, Helena
    It is generally assumed that the way people assess the relationship between a cause and an outcome is closely related to the actual evidence existing about the co-occurrence of these events. However, people's estimations are often biased, and this usually translates into illusions of causality. Some have suggested that such illusions could be the result of previous knowledge-based expectations. In the present research we explored the role that previous knowledge has in the development of illusions of causality. We propose that previous knowledge influences the assessment of causality by influencing the decisions about responding or not (i.e., presence or absence of the potential cause), which biases the information people are exposed to, and this in turn produces illusions congruent with such biased information. In a non-contingent situation in which participants decided whether the potential cause was present or absent (Experiment 1), the influence of expectations on participants' judgments was mediated by the probability of occurrence of the potential cause (determined by participants' responses). However, in an identical situation, except that the participants were not allowed to decide the occurrence of the potential cause (Experiment 2), only the probability of the cause was significant, not the expectations or the interaction. Together, these results support our hypothesis that knowledge-based expectations affect the development of causal illusions by the mediation of behavior, which biases the information received.