Parenting Bias Codex
Parents’ participation in high-quality parenting programs and involvement in their kids’ education can significantly improve children’s academic and socio-emotional outcomes.
Yet engaging parents in these programs can be challenging. Many excellent programs struggle to attract eligible parents and sustain their participation.
Attempts to increase parent engagement often focus on improving the intervention or minimizing logistical hurdles. The director of a parenting skills program might work to make it more culturally relevant or introduce a more engaging, interactive workshop format. Alternatively, the director may offer transportation to workshops, free on-site childcare, and event times that are convenient for working parents.
While helpful, these strategies typically are insufficient. Parent engagement continues to fall short of targets. We propose that these approaches fail to incorporate an essential consideration: how parents actually make decisions.
Parent engagement with any given program or resource depends on complex, in-the-moment decisions shaped by subconscious, irrational, and context-dependent factors. Cognitive science has uncovered specific biases that consistently influence individuals’ decisions in domains ranging from finance to health to relationships.
Considering how these cognitive biases play a role in parents’ decisions to take advantage of available resources can help increase parent engagement.
Eight common cognitive biases are particularly relevant to parenting. Explore the links below to learn how each type of bias may affect parents, what research says about it, and how it relates to
’s work.
Parents’ participation in high-quality parenting programs and involvement in their kids’ education can significantly improve children’s academic and socio-emotional outcomes.
Yet engaging parents in these programs can be challenging. Many excellent programs struggle to attract eligible parents and sustain their participation.
Attempts to increase parent engagement often focus on improving the intervention or minimizing logistical hurdles. The director of a parenting skills program might work to make it more culturally relevant or introduce a more engaging, interactive workshop format. Alternatively, the director may offer transportation to workshops, free on-site childcare, and event times that are convenient for working parents.
While helpful, these strategies typically are insufficient. Parent engagement continues to fall short of targets. We propose that these approaches fail to incorporate an essential consideration: how parents actually make decisions.
Parent engagement with any given program or resource depends on complex, in-the-moment decisions shaped by subconscious, irrational, and context-dependent factors. Cognitive science has uncovered specific biases that consistently influence individuals’ decisions in domains ranging from finance to health to relationships.
Considering how these cognitive biases play a role in parents’ decisions to take advantage of available resources can help increase parent engagement.
Eight common cognitive biases are particularly relevant to parenting. Explore the links below to learn how each type of bias may affect parents, what research says about it, and how it relates to
’s work.
Attentional Bias | Authority Bias | Bandwagon Effect | Confirmation Bias | Hostile Attribution Bias |
Optimism Bias | Present Bias | Status Quo Bias
Optimism Bias | Present Bias | Status Quo Bias