26
Reasons for What You Think is Right is Wrong
A
cognitive bias is something that our minds commonly do to distort our
own view of reality. Here are the 26 most studied and widely accepted
cognitive biases.
- Bandwagon
effect
- the tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do
(or believe) the same. Related to groupthink, herd behaviour, and manias.
Carl Jung pioneered the idea of the collective unconscious which is
considered by Jungian psychologists to be responsible for this cognitive
bias.
- Bias
blind spot - the tendency not to compensate for one’s
own cognitive biases.
- Choice-supportive
bias - the tendency to remember one’s choices as better
than they actually were.
- Confirmation
bias - the tendency to search for or interpret information
in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions.
- Congruence
bias - the tendency to test hypotheses exclusively through
direct testing.
- Contrast
effect
- the enhancement or diminishment of a weight or other measurement when
compared with recently observed contrasting object.
- Déformation
professionnelle
- the tendency to look at things according to the conventions of one’s
own profession, forgetting any broader point of view.
- Disconfirmation
bias - the tendency for people to extend critical scrutiny
to information which contradicts their prior beliefs and uncritically
accept information that is congruent with their prior beliefs.
- Endowment
effect
- the tendency for people to value something more as soon as they own
it.
- Focusing
effect
- prediction bias occurring when people place too much importance on
one aspect of an event; causes error in accurately predicting the utility
of a future outcome.
- Hyperbolic
discounting - the tendency for people to have a stronger
preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs, the
closer to the present both payoffs are.
- Illusion
of control - the tendency for human beings to believe they
can control or at least influence outcomes which they clearly cannot.
- Impact
bias - the tendency for people to overestimate the length
or the intensity of the impact of future feeling states.
- Information
bias - the tendency to seek information even when it cannot
affect action.
- Loss
aversion
- the tendency for people to strongly prefer avoiding losses over
acquiring gains.
- Neglect
of probability - the tendency to completely disregard probability
when making a decision under uncertainty.
- Mere
exposure effect - the tendency for people to express undue
liking for things merely because they are familiar with them.
- Omission
bias - The tendency to judge harmful actions as worse, or
less moral, than equally harmful omissions (inactions).
- Outcome
bias
- the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of
based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made.
- Planning
fallacy
- the tendency to underestimate task-completion times.
- Post-purchase
rationalisation
- the tendency to persuade oneself through rational argument that
a purchase was a good value.
- Pseudocertainty
effect
- the tendency to make risk-averse choices if the expected outcome
is positive, but make risk-seeking choices to avoid negative outcomes.
- Selective
perception - the tendency for expectations to affect perception.
- Status
quo bias
- the tendency for people to like things to stay relatively the same.
- Von
Restorff effect
- the tendency for an item that “stands out like a sore thumb”
to be more likely to be remembered than other items.
- Zero-risk
bias - preference for reducing a small risk to zero over
a greater reduction in a larger risk.
Oh
and, by the way, you’ll never be able to truly gauge any of the biases
you might be operating under since it’s not possible to accurately
observe a system you’re part of.
Now,
get out there and delude yourself!
|
