Library and Information Sciences

Library and Information Sciences

The Study of Cognitive Biases in Children's Story Books

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Zahra Pakdel 1
Mehdi Shaghaghi 2
Mohsen Hajizeinolabedini 3
1 M. A. of Information Science & Knowledge Studies, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Information Science & Knowledge Studies, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
3 Assistant Professor, Department of Information Science and Knowledge Studies, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
10.30481/lis.2024.473297.2188
Abstract
Objective: Cognitive biases are a kind of cognitive errors that affect human cognitive processes and take the form of thought patterns and play a role in people's evaluation and decision-making and lead to incorrect attitudes, beliefs, judgments and decisions. The aim of the current research is to identify cognitive biases in Iranian children's visual story books.
Methodology: The present research was carried out using an evaluative method. The research community is authored visual fiction books of age group (b), (c) and (b and c), which include 20 books published by the Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and Teenagers (2020 to 2023) and 17 best-selling books for children and teenagers (2023) and a total of 37 illustrated works under 120 pages were selected as sample. The standard checklist of ACAPS Institute was used to evaluate fiction books. The aforementioned checklist was translated and with the help of cognitive science experts, the way of representing bias in fiction books was added to the checklist. Then, using the CVI method, its validity was checked and confirmed after modification, and the reliability of the tool was checked and confirmed using the split-half method and the Spearman-Brown index.
Findings: A comparative analysis of children's and teen books from the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanoon) and best-selling titles revealed a significantly higher prevalence and diversity of cognitive biases in the latter. While Kanoon books exhibited 11 distinct biases, best-selling works contained 13, but it seems there is no significant difference between Kanoon and best-selling titles. Moreover, the findings highlighted confirmation bias as the most frequent cognitive bias present in stories aimed at children and teenagers. Other biases identified in these works, such as stereotype bias, overconfidence, and wishful thinking, were found to be conceptually intertwined with confirmation bias, potentially reinforcing its influence on young readers.
Conclusion: Although the number of cognitive biases identified in Canon works was 11 and in best-selling works was 13, this difference doesn't seem significant. It appears that the orientation of some Canon works towards success and the orientation of some best-sellers towards both success and role modelling have led to cognitive biases in certain works. However, it's likely that works evaluated through specific and well-defined procedures would have a better record regarding attention to errors. Therefore, it's necessary to examine the issue of cognitive biases, especially confirmation bias, during the pre-publication evaluation of works, and to refine narratives from this perspective.
Keywords
story book
cognitive bias
children's literature
children's story
children's book
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