What Is a Cognitive Bias? When we are making judgments and decisions about the world around us, we like to think that we are objective, logical, and capable of taking in and evaluating all the information that is available to us. The reality is, however, that our judgments and decisions are often riddled with errors and influenced by a wide variety of biases. The human brain is both remarkable and powerful, but certainly subject to limitations. One type of fundamental limitation on human thinking is known as a cognitive bias. A cognitive bias is a type of error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them. Cognitive biases can be caused by a number of different things. These biases are not necessarily all bad, however. Cognitive Bias vs. People sometimes confuse cognitive biases with logical fallacies, but the two are not the same. A Few Types of Cognitive Biases More Psychology Definitions: The Psychology Dictionary Browse the Psychology Dictionary
List of cognitive biases In psychology and cognitive science, cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm and/or rationality in judgment.[1][2] They are often studied in psychology, sociology and behavioral economics.[1] A memory bias is a cognitive bias that either enhances or impairs the recall of a memory (either the chances that the memory will be recalled at all, or the amount of time it takes for it to be recalled, or both), or that alters the content of a reported memory. Explanations include information-processing rules (i.e., mental shortcuts), called heuristics, that the brain uses to produce decisions or judgments. Biases have a variety of forms and appear as cognitive ("cold") bias, such as mental noise,[3] or motivational ("hot") bias, such as when beliefs are distorted by wishful thinking. Both effects can be present at the same time.[4][5] Although this research overwhelmingly involves human subjects, some studies have found bias in non-human animals as well. [edit] Association:
Being Really, Really, Ridiculously Good Looking “I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is.”~Derek Zoolander, Zoolander Humans like attractive people. Those blessed with the leading man looks of Brad Pitt or the curves of Beyonce can expect to make, on average, 10% to 15% more money over the course of their life than their more homely friends. This insight is not lost on Madison Avenue or Hollywood. Abercrombie & Fitch might be able to sell more clothes by having good-looking sales associates, but is that legal? The surprising answer is none. Is that a problem? The Science of Beauty Beauty is often considered subjective and “in the eye of the beholder.” To some extent this is true. However, academic work on beauty finds that much of what we find attractive is consistent over time and across cultures. More evidence of a universal, objective basis for beauty comes from studies of babies presented with pictures of different faces. The Halo Effect
Why You’re Biased About Being Biased In a classic experiment in 1953, students spent an hour doing repetitive, monotonous tasks, such as rotating square pegs a quarter turn, again and again. Then the experimenters asked the students to persuade someone else that this mind-numbing experience was in fact interesting. Some students got $1 ($9 today) to tell this fib while others got $20 ($176 today). According to the researchers, psychologists Merrill Carlsmith and Leon Festinger, this attitude shift was caused by “cognitive dissonance,” the discomfort we feel when we try to hold two contradictory ideas or beliefs at the same time. Scientists have uncovered more than 50 biases that, like this one, can mess with our thinking. Such biases can still affect you even if you know all about them because they operate unconsciously. As much as we may want to believe that thinking positively will lead to positive outcomes, the opposite might be true.
Relatively Interesting A visual guide to Cognitive Biases - Relatively Interesting Cognitive biases are psychological tendencies that cause the human brain to draw incorrect conclusions. Such biases are thought to be a form of “cognitive shortcut”, often based on rules of thumb, and include errors in statistical judgement, social attribution, and memory. These biases are a common outcome of human thought, and often drastically skew the reliability of anecdotal and legal evidence. The phenomenon is studied in cognitive science and social psychology. The slideshow below is for anyone who is trying to study all of the cognitive biases so they can better understand human thought and behavior. The slideshow is broken up into four main sections: social biases; memory biases; decision-making biases; and probability/belief biases. Click the slideshow to begin. This presentation is free to share for non-commercial usage, and much of the contents within is under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
theconversation What happens to your brain when you walk into a shop and are faced with a huge, ultra-high definition, 3D television at the startling price of £37,695? Assuming you actually need a new TV, you might dismiss this as ridiculous; laugh at the spendthrift fools who might buy it. And then, very sensibly, you start looking at more reasonably priced options, maybe at around the £1,500 mark. You have just been successfully manipulated. The above is precisely what happened to me, and it happens to all of us. This example illustrates three key properties of anchoring. Unlike many recent findings in psychology that fail to replicate, the anchoring effect is easy to demonstrate and repeat. Court out The effect is not limited to the lab, but shows up robustly in the real world. The second key thing to bear in mind: everyone does it. Now, occasionally, companies get it wrong. And that leads on to the final aspect of the phenomenon: no one is immune. Checklist So how can you stop getting caught out?
Relatively Interesting Logical Fallacies in the Lab - Relatively Interesting Errors in reasoning aren’t limited to just us regular folk. Even highly educated scientists – who are taught how to think and are taught how to follow the scientific method – are not immune to committing logical fallacies. Unbeknownst to us, biases find a way to creep into into our thoughts and eventually into the arguments we make. It takes a a lot of effort to avoid using logical fallacies. But understanding them is essential to making rational and reasonable decisions in life. The Upturned Microscope Presents: Logical Fallacies in the Lab, of all places, with a few of our favorites being: For those work work in the lab doing science-y things, you’ll appreciate these even more. Source: The Upturned Microscope
List of fallacies List of faulty argument types Because of their variety, fallacies are challenging to classify. They can be classified by their structure (formal fallacies) or content (informal fallacies). Informal fallacies, the larger group, may then be subdivided into categories such as improper presumption, faulty generalization, error in assigning causation, and relevance, among others. The use of fallacies is common when the speaker's goal of achieving common agreement is more important to them than utilizing sound reasoning. Formal fallacies[edit] Propositional fallacies[edit] A propositional fallacy is an error that concerns compound propositions. Quantification fallacies[edit] Existential fallacy – an argument that has a universal premise and a particular conclusion. Formal syllogistic fallacies[edit] Syllogistic fallacies – logical fallacies that occur in syllogisms. Informal fallacies[edit] Informal fallacies – arguments that are logically unsound for lack of well-grounded premises. See also[edit]