Cognitive biases in writing
By
Brett Stern
The
United States can be considered a very sensitive country in many areas. One of
the biggest controversial topics in the U.S. is abortion. Many people say
abortion is murder. Others, say abortion is necessary if the women cannot take
care of the child or simply does not want to take car of the child. In the
article “There is absolutely no reason to restrict women's options for abortion
access” Jessica uses many cognate biases to drive her point across. One Cognitive
bias that is evident in her writing is an empathy gap. Jessica says, “We wouldn't (and shouldn't) have to pretend that
women who are forced into sex are somehow more deserving of medical care” she
is not taking into account how rape victims will react to here basically saying
that rape victims do not deserve extra treatment. Several people may disagree
with Jessica, but her empathy gap causes her underestimate how strong others
feelings can be.
Ms. Valenti uses attentional bias
throughout her article. In her first paragraph she says, “no parental consent
laws, no mandated ultrasounds, no waiting periods, no bans on late term
abortions and no bans on federal funding for abortion.” She uses the word “no”
several times in a row to instill a reoccurring thought into the readers head
that there truly should be no restrictions on Birth control. She also uses “I”
a lot as well as “in my opinion.” Jessica tells the reader at several points
that these are her thoughts, which also uses the false consensus effect. She
has a false sense that everyone agrees with her which is not the case because
abortion is such a debated topic.
Jessica uses biases and cognitive effects to both get her
point across and persuade the reader.
Abortion is an often debated topic that may be argued about until the
end of time. Jessica repeats herself and disregards others emotions at times as
an effort to make herself heard. She often looks for approval from her readers
and judging by her use of biases, she may have a considerable amount of people on
her side. Where do you stand on abortion?
No comments:
Post a Comment