Pres. Herzberger says: Debate rules -- another lesson about Thinking, Fast and Slow

I attended a Constitution Day event last night, held by our debate team.  The team put on a debate about the automatic citizenry rights of children born in the United States.  The arguments were interesting enough, but what added to the enjoyment was hearing the rules of debating explained.  The “government” went first, followed by the “opposition.”  In the summation, the opposition went first, with the government getting the last word.  As a good student of psychology, I wanted to jump up and warn the opposition that it was clearly at a disadvantage.  Research affirms that “first impressions count” and it is also true that we are more likely to remember and weigh more heavily arguments we hear first and last in a sequence, not those in the middle.  If you ever have a chance to be the first or last candidate to be interviewed for a job, take it!  (By the way, the government won the debate.)

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