Cognitive biases and their implications for financial education: the “Brumadinho effect” case in graphs construction

Abstract

This paper discusses the cognitive biases identified from the analysis of 21 graphic and textual records produced individually by 47 university students during an Economics class. The records were the result of an activity in which students were required to complete Cartesian charts in which part of the stock price trajectory of some companies was present, and part was hidden. Students should draw the trajectory that the stock price would have taken in a past period. In this sense, it was a “retrospective projection” activity. More than 80% of the 21 graphical and textual records included chronological distortions that exemplified the cognitive challenges involved in teaching and learning financial topics. The identified phenomenon consisted of a synthesis of cognitive biases that jeopardized the perception of event chronology that are part of the students' prior knowledge, being an example of the challenges to be considered in the initiatives for the promotion of Financial Education in Mathematical Education.

Keywords:
Financial Education; Psychology of Mathematical Education; Cognitive Bias