The Psychology Behind Irrational Decisions is the title of a TED-Ed lesson that I needed to rewatch this morning.  The lesson focuses on the role of heuristics in our decision making processes. Of course, to understand the role of heuristics in making decisions students first need to understand heuristics. The lesson does a good job of defining heuristics for students. The video from the lesson is embedded below.

Applications for Education

A possible extension for this lesson is to have students think about and find examples of how heuristics can influence the statements people make in political discussions.