If we accept that our lives have two realities then it’s best that we figure out how to merge these two realities so that we get better results out of life.
I know, I already hit you with the heavy stuff but if you stick with me we will get through this. Consider this page an index to the most common cognitive biases that we experience.
Why should you care about these? Because when you understand what biases you might be carrying into your decision-making, you can make more informed decisions.
- Confirmation Bias
Definition: The tendency to search for, interpret, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs.
Example: A person who believes in ghosts might focus on unexplained phenomena in their house, ignoring logical explanations for strange noises or movements. - Availability Heuristic
Definition: The tendency to overestimate the likelihood of events with greater “availability” in memory.
Example: After seeing news reports about plane crashes, a person might overestimate the probability of dying in a plane crash, even though it’s statistically very rare. - Anchoring Bias
Definition: The tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered when making decisions.
Example: In salary negotiations, the initial number suggested often becomes the “anchor” around which the rest of the negotiation revolves. - Dunning-Kruger Effect
Definition: A cognitive bias in which people with limited knowledge or competence in a given intellectual or social domain greatly overestimate their own knowledge or competence in that domain.
Example: A novice chef who has just learned a few recipes might believe they’re an expert in culinary arts, not realizing how much they don’t know about advanced techniques and cuisines. - Negativity Bias
Definition: The tendency to give more weight to negative experiences or information compared to positive ones.
Example: A student receives mostly positive feedback on an essay with one criticism, but focuses primarily on the single negative comment. - Sunk Cost Fallacy
Definition: The tendency to continue investing time, money, or effort into something because of past investments, despite new evidence suggesting that it’s no longer the best course of action.
Example: Continuing to watch a movie you’re not enjoying just because you’ve already spent an hour on it. - Bandwagon Effect
Definition: The tendency to adopt beliefs, ideas, or behaviors because many other people do so.
Example: A person starts watching a TV show primarily because “everyone else is watching it.” - Halo Effect
Definition: The tendency for an impression created in one area to influence opinion in another area.
Example: Assuming that an attractive person is also intelligent or kind without any evidence to support this. - Hindsight Bias
Definition: The tendency to perceive past events as having been more predictable than they actually were.
Example: After a sports game, claiming “I knew they were going to win” even though you had no strong opinion before the game. - Self-Serving Bias
Definition: The tendency to attribute positive events to one’s own character but attribute negative events to external factors.
Example: A student who gets a good grade on a test thinks it’s due to their intelligence, but if they get a bad grade, they blame the teacher or the difficulty of the test. - Fundamental Attribution Error
Definition: The tendency to overemphasize personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others while underemphasizing situational explanations.
Example: Assuming a colleague who is late to a meeting is irresponsible, without considering possible external factors like traffic or a family emergency. - Optimism Bias
Definition: The tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive events and underestimate the likelihood of negative events.
Example: A smoker believing they are less likely to get lung cancer than other smokers.