Debriefing

​Revealing the design and trying to create the Aha-moment

The debriefing sessions to date have been full class events when we have revealed the design of the matched-guise experiments,
​showed the results from the response questionnaires and when we have had a chance to discuss these in smaller and larger groups. ​

To date we have used the following workflow in the debriefing workshops:

1. Revelation of the design of the 'matched-guise' experiment
2. showing the results of the class 
3. discussions in focus groups based on the results 
4. Discussions in class as a whole

Revelation of the design Showing the results Discussions in focus groups Discussions in whole class

In the revelation of design we have explained the general principles behind matched-guise methodology, and then presented the students with the three versions of the recordings:

• the original recording,
• morphed version 1 
• morphed version 2

We have also explained the logic behind the case and what we were really looking at. This has generally been done for the entire class.

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​Original recording

Morphed version 1 (near original)

Morphed version 2 (changed gender)

We have then presented the results of the responses of the two respondent groups. It is important here that we point out that this is a group average so that no-one risks feeling pointed out for their responses. During the results debriefings we try to highlight differences which are particularly striking in a way that is visually telling (graphs and diagrams for example).

Figure from debriefing with important and large differences highlighted

After this we have split the class into smaller focus groups, where each group has been given a battery of questions related to the results, and what these imply for their own professional situations.

Focus groups of 3 - 4 persons

We have ​then generally finished off with a class discussion, where each group has been given an opportunity to summarise their findings and where time has also been given for more general discussions. After the group debriefing we administer a post-survey where students also have an opportunity to give feed-back on the entire experiment. This feed-back has generally been quite positive to date.

Some comments from the evaluations in response to the question " Do you think this experiment  helped to make you more aware of how stereotyping affects you in your judgments of others":

Yes. By showing and explaining the findings at the end of the experiment, it has made me think about how people subconsciously perceive others in conversations and debates. I feel that this is something to be mindful of in future.

Yes... it directly showed me that my personality perception changed with vocal pitch.

Absolutely! I definitely perceived the male recording differently than the female recording. This study brought my own stereotypes to light.

​Sure. It is unconscious and almost inadvertent the stereotypes we make as humans listening to another. I never realized the contingency upon the gender of the speaker and how my gender as the listener has an unconscious, possibly stereotypical effect of how I perceive the medium of the message from the speaker.

In spite of very positive qualitative feed-back on the method as a means of raising awareness, we are still struggling to find more quantitative means of measuring this.