IDST 133.001 – Triple-I: How to Not Be Fooled – or Fool Yourself*

Instructors: Ram Neta (PHIL), Colin Wallace (PHYS), and Steven Buzinski (PSYC). PHIL TA: Yan Chen. This course meets TR 2:00 – 3:15 p.m. in GS G100.

*This course is scheduled and controlled by The Office of Undergraduate Curricula (OUC). Please direct all registration questions to the OUC’s First-Year Curriculum Specialist, Ben Haven.

How do you avoid being fooled by bogus claims? In this class, we examine climate change and the age of Earth and the universe – two topics where our underlying beliefs push us toward conclusions that conflict with the evidence. In addition to learning the science underlying these topics, we will learn the psychology of belief systems, why our brains reject some information, and how to deal with uncertainty, recognize logical fallacies, and examine claims.

This is a required First-Year Foundations course in the IDEAs in Action curriculum.

Corequisite: IDST 133L – Data Literacy Lab